Mad dogs and a Lexus

My neighbor's Lexus, 7x10" watercolor

I suppose you’d rather read here about the color, the composition, the medium, etc. Although I do respect and try to pay attention to the “rules of aesthetics”, seems my inspiration to paint what I do is often tied to a story or a memory. Today’s plein air watercolor is no exception.

I live in the house on the left in this painting. That’s my neighbor’s car in the garage.

I love most of what I can recall about my more-years-than-I-want-to-admit advertising career as an art director. Sure there’s a lot of schlock out there, but much advertising is downright entertaining. An ad group in NYC created one of the funniest, most clever ads I ever had the privilege to view. The name of the small, very-hot-at-the-time, agency in New York was Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Yes, I’m serious. (I Googled them and found the agency closed its doors in 2005.) The ad was for the National Wildlife Federation and the visual had a couple of small sparrows perched on a tree limb. The headline was, “Give to the Wildlife Federation. After all, who else is going to _____ on your neighbor’s Lexus?” something like that. You fill in the blank.

Yep, that’s a Lexus parked safely (from any wildlife) in my neighbor’s garage. Did this painting yesterday in spite of the heat. Click Morning pathway to see the plein air oil I painted this morning before the mercury soared.