Things Unseen

Clay by JGA   https://www.facebook.com/Claybyjga/

A few weeks ago, this sweet little girl (pictured above) came up to my table as I was vending, and asked if I had a painting of a jellyfish! I thought to myself... jellyfish are see-through... colorless.  The only one I had ever seen was in someone's hand... which I would have never seen - and only seen it because it was laying flat in the palm of a woman's hand!

The little girl went on to tell me more about why she liked jellyfish.  I told her I would work on a jellyfish, even though I had my doubts of how to really make 'see-through' much to paint or look at.

Well, Miss (Joci) JGA... here is my watercolor painting of a jellyfish!!!

A few days prior to the show where I met JGA, a really nice lady asked me if I had ever drawn a 'harness horse'.  I had only seen one harness race... as a kid.  All I remember were the long barns with stalls the horses where sometimes kept in.  The smell of the barns and the spectators as they smoked and drank beer.  Again, really, I was asked to draw something I had not seen.

I did my best, and this was the result.

Then it happened again at Disney World, when a man was looking over my paintings and asked if I had a shrimp! My mind scanned all I knew about 'shrimp' and all I cam up was already prepared shrimp! I really didn't know what they looked like!! I smiled at him and said, "No.  But I can paint you one tonight!"  He said if it was no bother, that would be great!

I studied the shrimp, and I drew 2.  One a bit abstract (bottom) and one a little more realistic.  He chose the realistic one.  After he bought it, he showed me a picture of him on his boat with a catch of shrimp.  

The lesson I learned - 

 look for the gems in things we might normally overlook...

 those things unseen.