We watched a local parade today from a friend's yard. She holds a drop-in brunch/parade-watching morning in her yard on the route. It is great for families, kids table of breakfast outside, table for adults inside. This is the second time we've gone. I meet interesting people, watch the parade and the children and the excitement. It's great fun. I love parades and they always remind me of my Dad. Last year, we sat by the street in our lawn chairs, but this year, it was too hot! Our friend thoughtfully had a pop up canopy on the lawn from where we watched in shade along with a couple of nice families with overheated children. The yard has a hedge and gate so it's easy for toddlers to run around, not under the wheels of a float.
I did the drawing on site at the parade, moving people where I needed them for the design, including the little brothers in matching stripes lower left. I added watercolor back at home, from my head, then used a little colored pencil and a china white pencil for some accents. My first thought was to only color the flags, but I rejected that idea, because i had intentionally added a number of flags and it would have been spotty. I love painting crowds of people, the busyness, the color, the activity. There's always a lot going on. I am working on simplifying the shapes and looking at groups of people as masses rather than individuals.
I designed this sketch with everyone looking to the right, the biggest flag to the right and a little girl in Dad's arms pointing off the page to the direction the parade is coming from. Rather than leading the viewer's eye off the page, the design brings the viewer's eye there, and then carries it back into the page, where the two little boys are in the opposite corner, then around through the crowd. By the way, this is a parade painting without any parade. It tells the story through the crowd.
This is my two hundred sixty-eighth daily drawing. Again, thank you for looking and Happy 4th of July.
Last summer we watched the Fourth of July parade in Hingham, MA. I am going to do a few study sketches of the floats and attractions against the trees behind. I need to add some dark green behind these firefighters to highlight the light on them, and the fun of the day.
This is my sixty-second daily drawing... thank you for your attention.
I love the festive flags and bunting that adorn the buildings in July, and Hingham's Lincoln Maritime Center is no exception. I always have, and as I write this, I think it's all due to Robert Preston.
"The Music Man" movie, 1962, with Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, etc, is filled with holiday bunting. The movie takes place during one summer in fictional River City, Iowa. A lot of the movie's fabulous singing and dancing takes place in front of red, white, and blue bunting. "The Music Man" was my Dad's favorite, and we grew up knowing every lyric, every move, every nuance. I remember Dad telling us that the melody of "Good Night, My Someone" was the same as "76 Trombones", and I tried and tried to hear it. I think I pretended I could (but I lied) .. now I can. I loved the barbershop quartet, and sang along to "Lida Rose" and "Goodnight Ladies"... all the while, absorbing the patriotic bunting backdrop. (Click the link above for the rousing win-them-over-by-hijacking-the-assembly-in-the-gym scene.)
Thanks for reminiscing with me, and thanks for looking.
It has been an interesting week here on Monhegan, many trips to the ferry to greet, or send off friends. I carry my sketchbook around with me and have had some time to sit and work on a few ideas, some of which become resolved into paintings. Here is a page of quick sketches, including my beloved Manana.
Today we were greeted by the sun, and even a sunset, though the fog hung in the harbor for most of the day, obscuring much of Manana from view. Tonight, is Monhegan's 4th of July celebration, which involves random fireworks lit off on Fish Beach, and a treat tonight - semi-professional fireworks from the dock! Exciting. Mid-fireworks show we were treated to a rousing chorus of the "Star Spangled Banner" by a group of enthusiastic patriots down at the beach. Happy Birthday, America. We live in a wonderful country.
