P-Patch Community Garden

Thomas Street Garden Pump

8x10

Our middle son, Kevin, lives in Seattle and this last weekend we helped him move to the Capitol Hill area. Saturday was pretty much a 12 hr grind, but Sunday Kevin took us on a tour of the area. Now, being the artist that i am, i found subjects and compositions all over the place, Seattle is just an amazing city, a bit edgy, but amazing. Both days i found inspiration everywhere that was begging to be painted.

During our sunday walk, we happened onto the Thomas Street Gardens, which is a lot, in the middle of a residential neighborhood that Thomas Street Gardens acquired in 1997 and is part of the P-Patch Community Gardening Program in Seattle. It is a lovely whimsical garden that clearly fits with a NW theme of recycling meets artistic.

Many of the P-Patch gardens promote a "giving garden" where the produce is donated to a local food bank. They also promote environmental awareness, strengthen neighborhoods, and increase self-reliance among many other things.

I was so inspired by this little pump nestled amongst the flowers and rocks that i knew it was going to make it into a painting. Little did i know it was to be the same day. I spent a few hours last night with some touch ups tonight and enjoyed painting this fun and cheery piece.

One of the things i enjoy doing while painting is dabbing on thick spots of color, especially for the flowers. I am not concerned too much with detail at this point, as i enjoy letting the paint do its thing as i apply it and pull the brush off the panel. The photo doesn't show it, but there are little curly ques and ridges that appear when applying paint in this manner and to me is the frosting on the cake. And, you just don't eat cake without frosting, right.....?

Check out Thomas Street Gardens http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/ppatch/locations/34.htm