In a dancing mood
watercolour crayon on bond paper
7 x 9 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010
(I was looking for reference
for a big, new painting and found
this and the watercolour crayons.
So I played around a bit.
Forgive the wrinkled paper. Bond
is not designed for water.)
me? Or are people acting in a bizarre
fashion? We go walking in the park, and
first we see a couple walking with a small baby
in a stroller and an aggressive pit bull. The
man says, "don't worry he's just a puppy," and
they walk off into the sunset. Pit bulls
are banned in Ontario. You're not allowed
to have a pit bull puppy, and older pit bulls
have to be muzzled. But the pit bull/baby
combo is particularly disturbing.
Then farther on in our quiet park, Zoey, our dog
is attacked by a pit bull walking with a woman
pushing a doll stroller. Steven gets the dog
away from Zoey, and the woman
says "I'm sorry, he is probably just guarding
my ferret." Zoey stops yelping in distress.
We inspect her -- she seems all right, so we head
for home. Steven repeats the woman's excuse,
"He's probably protecting my ferret!" She's
walking a ferret in a doll carriage. So the
night has gone sooooo strange that further
down the path we start laughing at how absurd
this walk is. I start singing the song
Season of the witch, (my birthday is on
Hallow'een so I know a lot of themed songs)
and suddenly Steven's flashlight reveals
three baby owls in the trees beside us.
The woods with the owls
baby carriage and the pit bulls are gone, and
we are seeing baby owls. How amazing!
A baby owl
Caran D'Ache watercolour crayons. The drawing
is from photo reference for a portrait a few
years ago.
Have a seeing-the-miracles-everywhere day.
Hi Barbara,
ReplyDeleteIn spite of the madness, you were suppose to be on that walk.
Thank you for photographing those miraculous baby owls.
Love,
Josephine
How odd. Kind of like a menacing Alice in Wonderland moment. Ferrets in doll strollers, pitbulls, babies and baby owls. All in an evening walk. You just needed a cherry pie floating by to make the evening perfectly weird..lol.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your dog's okay, Barbara--I know how frightening that is: my little Itchy was attacked by a pit bull and required stitches in several places. Mostly it was just terrifying.
ReplyDeleteLove all the hot colors in your crayon drawing, and its directness: in the application of color and the sitter's frank gaze.
You must have some great reference photos collected!
(Walking a ferret, egad!)
In the immortal words of Anna Rosanna Dana, "It's aways somethin!
ReplyDeleteSome days are like that I guess. But leave it to you guys to find something wonderful in the midst of pit bulls and ferrets.
I like Kims take on this, "menacing Alice in Wonderland". What a hoot!
Cool photos.
E
a great description about the menacing wonderland! ha ha. The watercolour crayon sketch is fresh and vibrant, what a good medium for a sketching. the baby owls so so sweet.
ReplyDelete