My Feathered Friend
So, this is my very first blog and I hope you enjoy it. I'm not making any promises about how many or how often I write these, but to start, I thought I would tell you about just one plein air painting outing I had because if nothing else, you never know what's going to happen when you paint outside!
A few years ago, Cheryl and I went to Provincetown for a weekend to check on the construction of our house in Truro. We stayed at a small cottage in the West End which happened to be right next to a town parking lot. I got up early the next morning and took all of my paraphernalia and got set up in the parking lot. The spot met all of my requirements; I didn't have to carry my equipment too far, a perfect subject to paint in the morning light, perfect weather conditions and most important...easy access to a bathroom. Anyway, there is a very picturesque "floater" right across the street from where we were staying. So this was what I decided to paint. Some history...back in the very early 1800s, a small village sprang up across the bay from Provincetown and was mainly inhabited by fishermen. This village grew to about 200 inhabitants and then began to dwindle in the 1860s as fishing became more scarce. These houses were moved from Long Point to Provincetown by their owners by floating them across the bay on scows. If you see a small blue and white plaque on the outside of a house in Provincetown you will have spotted a "floater." Anyway, there is a very picturesque "floater" right across the street from where we were staying. Finally, my easel was ready, paints were on my palette and I started to paint. After about an hour, all of a sudden a blue jay landed in my palette and started walking in my paint! He was especially drawn to the primary colors - red, yellow and blue! I kept trying to shoo him away but he was very persistent! We began to attract a crowd...one woman asking me if he was my pet! I was finally able to shoo him off and he wasn't happy about it. To my horror, he landed on the roof of a black Lexus parked right next to us. I went over to the Lexus to see if there was any damage and sure enough, there were red, yellow and blue bird prints on the roof of the car! Now, I felt very bad for the owner but I didn't want to get in the middle of this problem so I put all of my stuff away and went up to our cottage to finish my painting the next morning. Later that day, we were enjoying a cocktail out on our deck before dinner and all of a sudden, the blue jay lands on my forearm!
I was playing with some colored pencils and he grabbed my yellow pencil and took off with it! The next day, I met a neighbor as I was setting up to finish my painting and she told me about a blue jay that landed on her deck the night before and started stealing colored pencils from her guest as he was drawing on her deck!
I did finally finish the painting, and somewhat sadly, never saw the blue jay again.