Day 16. Field Guide to People

“Field Guide to People” 5×7 $105.00 [creativ_button url=”http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/denise-hopkins/field-guide-to-people/440841″ icon=”” label=”Buy Now” colour=”red” colour_custom=”” size=”medium” edge=”straight” target=”_self”]

When I read the poem below I started thinking about being a “people watcher.” And my friend Butch had just sent me an encouraging e-mail, part of which read, “You know, I can’t imagine better, more beautiful and meaningful pictures than your pictures of the birds and water and sky.  But don’t underestimate your talents in drawing people, in the process of living…”

So I thought about all my people-watching reference photos and went to one of a street musician in the French Quarter. I intended to do more– the whole background, the people around him, but after a few failed attempts, I settled on this one person and isolated him from his surroundings. It’s a shame too, because there was a Brocato’s truck passing down Decatur at the exact moment I snapped the photo. I might revisit it on a larger canvas and see if I can’t include some of the background.

From Woody’s Restaurant, Middlebury

by Greg Delanty

Today, noon, a young macho friendly waiter and three diners,

business types—two males, one female—

are in a quandary about the name of the duck paddling

Otter Creek,

the duck being brown, but too large to be a female mallard.

They really

want to know, and I’m the human-watcher behind the nook

of my table,

camouflaged by my stillness and nonchalant plumage.

They really want to know.

This sighting I record in the back of my Field Guide to People.