Julie was here for a visit with her children over the
holiday. We went shopping one day to a place called “Charming Charlie’s.” This store would satisfy anyone’s desire to
go crazy with accessories. A mere twelve thousand square feet of necklaces, scarves,
purses, earrings, leggings, and more.
Everything is arranged by color. I felt I was in the movie “Alice in
Wonderland.”
I’ve wanted to paint
Julie for some time so when I spotted this necklace I thought “that might be
fun to paint.”
So on went the necklace. Too big for Julie, but it was
sparkly, and went she sat in the sunshine everything lit up, her face, hair and
of course the too big necklace. When I went to paint it I toned down the lights
on the necklace and kept the colors cool, so the colors in the necklace didn’t
overtake her face.
I had the not so brilliant idea that I would send the
necklace around to women I know, have them pose in the necklace, and then mail
it on to the next woman on the list. You
know, sort of like the “Sisters of the Traveling Pants” only this would be
sisters of the traveling too big necklace. I
thought I would do a hundred or so of these paintings, and then some New York
Gallery would trip over themselves to have a showing of the paintings of women
in the necklace. Was I crazy? Suffering from delusions? Perhaps too much eggnog
for the holiday? I imagine that the
logistics and trying to keep track of the thing would be an adventure in and of
itself. (Where is it today? Chicago with Linda? Wisconsin with Marge? Scottsville
with Sharon? Back in Cincinnati with
Rachel? No, it’s in New York with Geri who had to be tied to a chair to wear
it.)
Well I’ve already exhausted myself just thinking about it.
So, here is the lovely Julie in the one and only painting of the necklace. Well
maybe.
11"X14" Oil on canvas. For information about commission portraits, please contact me at lindamccoyart@live.com Copyright 2011 Linda McCoy
