Singing!

Jsgcreations@aol.com

A new piece to welcome in the summer months!

This new piece of art, that I entitled *Singing* took a while to configure as I usually just let the paintbrush or pencil create it`s own story on the paper.  This picture however needed to depict defined imagery as I planned to give it as a present to a work colleague who was retiring.  Having surreptitiously gathered small pieces of information from him over a short period of time, on his plans for  his oncoming retirement, I felt it would be nice to incorporate images relating to them. It was common knowledge that he was a member of a choir, so I wanted to use that as a focal point in the painting so drew the faces first.  The other thing he said he was really looking forward to doing was gardening, so I drew the shed with the flowers.  The singing bird was a second thought and I felt it added to and linked well with the two unrelated subjects in the picture.  The background with the golf-course was what I considered to be synonomous with retirement although I wasn`t sure that he actually participated in the sport.

To be perfectly honest, I found the picture unusually hard to structure.  I knew what I wanted to achieve  but found it difficult to design.  Indeed, it is quite different to my usual work but I hadn`t expected to have to toil quite so much over the configurations and overall structuring of the piece.

Maybe it was because I don`t usually work within such confined boundaries, maybe I didn`t allow myself enough time to plan the overall design; whatever the reason, it was creatively frustrating not to have the usual natural flow and execution of an idea appear and develop easily on the paper.  Having said that, I am utterly delighted with how the piece turned out.  I have had positive reactions and responses to it  on my blogs and art pages and can now recognise it as a beautiful piece of work, and one to be proud of.  Furthermore, when presented with the framed final picture, my colleague seemed to genuinely appreciate it.  It was heartwarming to see both his wife and himself studying my art and acknowledging it`s beauty for what it was.  They both voiced their appreciation of such a personal depiction of his forth-coming retirement.  My work was done, and I admit to feeling hugely proud at hopefully producing something they would  treasure for some years to come.