The Tinker's Dream.....

Sweet Summer Solace....

I Had a week of Vacation, Dear Readers, during which one would think I got a Lot done because I went Nowhere at all, except perhaps to Travel far far away into a land that never was and perhaps will never be, trying to find the Tinker's Dream. That elusive place where the horses are always running free but never running far, where the sun is always just rising, or just setting, and one can sit and watch the shadows shift with the promise of peace and go nowhere at all! And there is a soft mattress in a quiet corner where the Dreams find you and steal you away....

Perhaps some of you will remember that A year ago 

I got swept up in building a Gypsy Caravan.... 

and as with so many of my in-progress projects,

 I came upon a challenging place 

and jumped to an easier project instead!

In this case the challenging place was the realization 

that in order to complete the outside of the wagon, 

I had to first complete the inside!

Which meant first of all adding glass to the windows!

This kit comes with lovely frames, but no glass panes.

(I wanted real glass panes)

Here you can see that the windows are finished....

Including the ones in the front door panels 

which here are open wide to give you a view inside. 

They required quite a bit of fancy measuring, cutting 

and additional interior framing to hold the glass in place.

(The roof is only temporarily in place.)

But that was just the beginning! 

Because a Gypsy wagon has to be very well organized... 

and all the spaces have to be carefully planned.

And in this case the sleeping compartment was so dark and gloomy... 

even with the two windows.... 

It made me think that perhaps the Tinker had painted the walls

 to bring in a feeling of the outdoors he knew so well.... 

and perhaps he had painted all his beloved horses...

So I had to see if I could find that place and bring it here....

 

The beginning is many coats of gesso...

And then a rough sketch and the beginning of layering the sky.....

You might be shocked that the next layer is the yellow ocher for the ground...

 but I wanted the warmth of sun to infuse the land.....

But there would be deep shadows 

so next came the burnt umber wherever the shadows lay.

At this point I began to need to be very specific about the source of the light in the painting... 

which is the sun just tipping the hill....

And then I start to add the greens....

 first the chrome green which is an olive yellow green....

And then the pthalo green which is a very translucent and blue green.... 

layered on top for the shadows....

And then I started to place the trees in the middle foreground..... 

to start to define the distance of the horizon...

And the ones at the "corners" which would frame the illusion 

of the outdoors on all sides of the wagon....

Arching their branches over the top of the "view" to enclose it....

To make it more sheltered and intimate and moody...

And of course, there will be horses!

They need a coat of white under-painted first...

But it has gotten very late and I had to pause for the night, Dear Readers, 

lest I begin to make too many mistakes...

And I go to sleep dreaming of grassy meadows I have never seen before...

And in the clear light of morning, start chasing shadows again.....

feeling my way into the left-side of the wagon...

Here I need to check that the shadows "run straight" 

once the wall is at 90 degrees angle to the main panel....

Of course, it depends entirely on the exact point of viewing to see it correctly....

And there will be another horse there too!

The horses will be colored... 

but their coats require the layering of colors too...

 

And too many details to enumerate... 

and shadows to ground them....

Being careful to leave the highlights of the lighter color where the sun strikes them.....

(sorry the surface is reflecting too much....)

And more close-up of the left side....

And the right too.

And another day has flown and I must stop for the night.

And with the fresh eyes of morning I can see 

that the central horse needs to be patched with black markings too....

And shadows added to ground the shire on the left.....

And highlights added to the leaves at the top....

And shadows in the trees....

 always tweaking the shadows.

And at some point Dear Readers, 

one must decide that enough is enough!

And move on the the framing.... 

here being the "structure" of the wagon...

The arched piece comes with the kit, 

but I have added the corner pieces....

because by now we are desperate to see how it will look when assembled!

Looking through the open doors to the sleeping compartment....

 (the blue tape is still on the inside of the door panel 

which has not been finished yet!)

Closer.... to see the right side panel too...

And the left hand side.... 

I know it is dark... the sun has set....

Can we feel the Tinker Dreaming?

So you can see Dear Readers, I did not go anywhere at all...

but I spent my Summer vacation in search of solace...

chasing the Tinker's Dream.

I hope you did not mind that I brought you too!