The year is drawing to an end. I have completed my two art goals for this year, to make a folk art carousel and to do another walking stick. With only a few weeks left in the year, I am taking on a fairly quick project. After two really intensive projects, I need something quick and fun. I am painting a small folk art floor cloth. As with many of my projects, there is a story behind this one also.
I really had not intended to paint a floor cloth. I had considered it once, but since I had no need real for a floor covering, I just put it on my mental list of things I might do a some time in the future. Then a small floor cloth showed up. This all started because my husband wanted to make a log carrier. We actually already have a very nice log carrier. We use it at home to bring in wood when we want to have a fire in the fireplace and at the cabin to bring in wood for the wood stove. The problem being that we have to bring it back and forth with us. Just one more thing in a long list of items that we are hauling back and forth. So, my husband asks me to keep an eye out for a canvas cloth or some canvas tote bags when I make a trip to the thrift store. (Cotton duck canvas was selling for about $11.00 a yard at the fabric store.) And, sure enough, on my next trip to the thrift store I find this small canvas floor cloth, new in the package, in the bin of craft items. It was priced at only a dollar, and it was just the right size for making a log carrier. Furthermore, as a bonus it was already hemmed.
I was really excited to be able to bring home this prize. It was just the size we needed, and you could not beat the price. All that had to be done was to sew on some webbing for the handles, and voila!, a log carrier. So I proudly show my find to my husband who says, "Oh, I changed my mind. I don't want to make one after all." So now, I have a floor cloth. It has been sitting in my studio annoying me for a while. My quick project to round out the year is to paint this floor cloth. If nothing else, it will check off one more item of artistic things I have on my bucket list.
My plan for this cloth is somewhat ambitious. I have had an inspiration picture in my file for some time of autumn leaves floating on a river. It is just an inspiration picture. I wanted my picture to be more personal. I decided I would paint a picture of a trout pool that is behind the cabin. Leaves float in the pool, and bunch up against the rocks, so it is similar to the inspiration picture in that aspect. But I wanted to add something more. When I stand at the edge of the trout pool and look down through the reflections, I can see trout hiding near the rocks. So the trout and underwater rocks will be in the picture also. I'm hoping to have it look as if you are actually standing at the edge of the pool and you are peering down through to see the trout. From that angle in real life you would also see the reflection of branches, sky, and sun light across the top of the pool. I'm going to try to paint this picture from memory, so that it will be impressionistic rather than trying to do something photo real. I think I will call it Reflections on the Trout Pool. This will be a double entendre as it will be reflections as in reflections on the pool and reflections as in my thinking about the trout pool. Sort of a personal inside joke, so to speak.
It is an ambitious painting project. As regular readers know, I have spent a little time this year trying to improve my painting skills. I expect this will never be as good a painting as I would like it to be. However, for a dollar, it is worth taking the risk. I have started on the under painting, but I don't have anything ready for a photo yet.
I have also considered painting the cloth and then making it into a decorated log carrier. However, that presents a few challenges. If you put the webbing straps on the unpainted side it means that the logs will be abrading the paint. If you put them on the painted side, they will be obscuring the painting. So I guess it will just be what it was supposed to be all along, a small floor cloth. It will be one of my own additions to the folk art that decorates the cabin.
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