My Folk Art

 Real artists look away, this will hurt your eyes.  

This is simply folk art, for my family.  The story of our time at Parsonage Cottage, a converted old cow shed/cart shed/stables.

It is a year or two since I last did anything to it.  It was around the time I had to have Toby Too put to sleep.  I painted his shadow self in pale grey, but then I felt too sad to continue.

This morning I suddenly found myself taking the painting off the wall and rummaging for my acrylic paints.  The time has come to do some more work on it, to continue the story.

My beloved dogs feature, of course.  Here we have Pip leading the pack just as she always led the boys into all things naughty.  What a girl.  It was the terrier in her.   The two boys she ruled were Toby and Ned.  Poor Ned was deaf, and Toby was gullible, always fell for her tricks.  

The fourth black dog is Toby Too.    Toby Too was a singleton, he didn't know the other dogs but he was my boy so he can roam with the others.

I have  painted out several hens, but there were many.  Rescue hens, they arrived almost bald but as they grew back their feathers so their cheeky and friendly characters grew.  They were enormous fun, we let them roam in Owl Wood all day, once they had become used to having space instead of a cage around them.   

So far I have roughly blocked in two of the cats, Sparky and Bennie, just Millie to block in somewhere. 

The owl box is tucked up on a tree, no owls painted in so far, although I have begun painting our frequent visitor, the woodpecker.  Many trees bear the scars of his visits!

The little red tractor is there to represent Mrs T, the farmer.  She used to whizz around the barley field in her little red tractor or driving the trailer as her son drove the combine harvester.  They were a great team.  It is also there because young Harry adored the stories of The Little Red Tractor, especially the one which featured the Muddy Man, that one stimulated a mixture of faux fear and giggles.  It worked every time.

The sunflowers are there because we used to have a sunflower competition.  Lily-of-the-valley because I am forever trying to grow it in memory of my mother.  And so on.  All the elements tall a story.

This is where I have begun blocking in Winston.  I decided that he could sit and watch the big black spirit boys romping by. 

The house now has two very beautiful wisteria growing along it, and there is also a grapevine, so lots more to add to the house and no doubt there will be other little tweaks and additions.  

It is a story with a few more chapters to go yet, I hope!

I know it is rough and ready, the point is that it tells a story.