My Old Friend Cotton Field
Wow it's hot! Of course, it is the middle of summer and we do live in the middle of Mississippi. I should expect cool breezes?
I spent two days last week standing next to my old friend Cotton Field, where I used to paint often but hadn't been for a year. Cotton Field lives adjacent to the home of the Foose/Saulter crew up in Thornton, MS. I have often stood on the other side of their lovely 1800s home and painted my other dear friend, Clothesline, with Other Cotton Field and Levee often sneaking into the background. Sky of course insinuates herself into every painting out there in the flat lands and this week's work was no exception. Sky was showing off!
My dogs love to be taken up there and were beside themselves when we pulled up the dirt road and they saw where they were. Roscoe, true to form, jumped into the pond every half hour or so and ran a few laps around the house and down to Levee to make sure he was nice and hot again. I brought my traveling mother's cur dog as well and he thought he'd died and gone to heaven. The three dogs were tuckered and happy after their day in the country sun and when they found themselves there again a second day, you could almost hear the chorus of angels singing in their ears.
Next week: more painting at sea level, but a different section of the earth. I leave Monday to drive my mother to the Tidewater area of Virginia. Another place I love to paint, I certainly haven't spent enough time there in the last couple of years. Denise and Alexander will fly up to meet us and I'm tickled to be introducing our baby to the salt air. Looks like he'll be starting his life of solid food while we're there. What do we think? Crab? Spot (a local fish sporting a littlr spot on the side of its head)? Fresh tomatoes? The grapes from Mama's vines? Hmmm, maybe just some rice cereal at first.
