Hemingway's Canteen & Boots Painting

Like I usually do, I placed my iMac next to my easel when I started this painting. For those of you who are not familiar with my Hemingway Series, several years ago on a visit to Hemingway's house (museum) in Key West, I took a number of photographs of his "stuff" through the glass of the bookcases and antique glass display cabinets with the idea of painting the wonderful reflections I encountered. Looking through glass is very different than looking at water, my usual reflective challenge.

This particular view showed Hemingway's old canteen and black cowboy boots sitting on a glass shelf. You can see his saddlebags through the glass shelf, but they appear as a strange shade of violet because of the color of the thick glass. On the bottom left corner of the painting you can see the rich green edge of the safety glass, which gives you a hint at what the heck you are looking at.

One of the reasons I like this series is that you don't automatically know what you are looking at. It takes a little time to figure it out. You can see the rest of the series at www.feldergallery.com. Once you understand the concept, you begin to see the parts and where the images are reflected.

There is an old mirror sitting on the glass shelf behind the objects, which reflect the view from inside the cabinet. There is also a reflection on the front piece of glass you are looking through. I find this type of image challenging and can't resist continuing the series. I think I have about six or so to go. I'd like to have at least fifteen of them, possibly putting them all together in a show.

So to begin, I started by dividing the canvas into eighths with a pencil line and then placed some guidelines over my photograph on the screen that match. Thus it was pretty easy to draw the image lightly on the canvas in pencil. Its a small canvas (for me) at 16" x 20" but almost as much work as the larger ones because of the degree of difficulty.

Since these reflections were superimposed in front of the actual objects on the shelf, there was a degree of transparency to them that I had to incorporate.

One unexpected reflection was myself. I guess this would be a lame attempt at a self portrait. My arm is showing up in the top left corner. It also had a violet/purple tint, so I left it that way. You can see the black camera strap around my hand. You can also see the arched windows behind me, with an electric fan at the bottom, and an area on the left of the painting with just my pencil sketch ready for paint.

Behind the left boot in the center of the painting, is a dark brown shape. That is the flap of the saddlebag coming up behind the glass shelf, and in front of the mirror. Now does it make sense?

Now here it is almost done as seen on my tabletop easel. Just a few more details and its done. I need to define the stitching on the boots and go around adding a little black in the darkest shadows, as well as a few highlights. I also had to go over the whole thing and do some touchups.

And here is the final piece. This color is probably more accurate than the prior image. You can see that I added the worn lines of the mirror just under my arm on the top left, defined some edges that were messy and did the touchups, then put my name on the bottom left corner because the bottom right was too important to mess with.

I am about to send this painting to the Felder Gallery in Port Aransas. It will receive the hand-rubbed dark frame that I always use on this series.

CATCHING UP WITH POSTS

I've been a little too lax posting on the work I've done in the past few months, and I plan to catch up with some single posts like this one. When I began posting my painting, I was posting several times until the piece was finished. I think that might be too much on one painting. 

NEW STORY COMING

I am also working on a story of shipping our Jeep Cherokee to Costa Rica and what we had to go through to finally get it to pass the country's strict inspection. You won't believe it. I'm taking a few extra photos to make it more real. See you next time.