From Friday April 4th, 2008...This is the view from "Tub" Tolton's boathouse on the St Lawrence. Tub was my Grade 10 science teacher who gave me 100% as a final year-end mark. We have remained friends ever since...
I was standing under the sheltered overhang out of the rain. The wind was calm and the rain was falling straight down so my canvas and palette stayed quite dry. The temperature was plus 3 or 4 Celsius but started to drop as the rain intensified. The precipitation was mixing with snow by the time I was done. The wind also picked up out of the east with the approach of the low pressure area. As a result, the wind and the rain started to penetrate under the overhang and I got very wet and very chilled. It took me a couple of hours under the cat and the comforter at the condo to get warm again.
The ice floats were headed down river when I started to paint but were headed back upriver with the wind by the time I was done. Flocks of waterfowl kept me entertained and I turned frequently from my canvas to watch them fly by. It was great to have them so near.
The entrance to Jones Creek is just to the right of the ice. The area is beautiful and I was thinking how nice it would be to live there and to "keep up with the Jones' ". This explains the title for the painting. The "the" was added as though it was an after thought in order to make the point of the double meaning in the title. The boat house that looks like it was tipping into the river was doing just that. It has since disappeared.
No comments:
Post a Comment