Hot Shadows

Yesterday I read a review in New York Times about a photography exhibit: Eudora Welty in New York: Photographs of the early 1930s, Portraits Taken by a Writer as a Young Woman (in Hard Times.) There is a slide show that goes along with the article that highlights the exquisite black and white photos taken in early 193os. They tell wonderful stories and focus on beautiful shadows, expressive faces of the people enduring difficult times, and taken from some unique angles. The show will be up until feb 6 at the Museum of The City of New York. I am so grateful for the internet that I am able to read about it and get a taste of the the photographs in the slide show right here from the comfort of my living room.

Hot Shadows is a miniature painting (3"x3") done in color pencils on watercolor paper. I wanted to show the texture of the gravel on the road and the watercolor paper did the trick. I also discovered that coloring and then erasing with an electric eraser left enough color on the paper because of its texture. This technique gave me the desired look of the gravel along with some depth. I was happy to leave a few jewels of color embedded in the shadows. I took the photographs of my bicycle and its shadows one saturday morning in September a few years ago waiting along the road side to cheer my daughter as she ran her first 5k. I played around a lot with the composition and finally settled on just the shadows.