This is the second of two paintings I did early one morning in the Listowel park. I was trying to loosen up, so I painted on small 5"x5" panels I brought. The idea was to paint fast and loose. I did the one of the entire tree first then decided to get up close to paint one small area of the flowers that bloomed on it. As I was working on this one, a nice, elderly gentleman came up to see what I was painting. He looked, and asked "You're painting the flowers? " I answered yes. He asked again, "You're painting the flowers, are ye?" I again answered, yes, and explained that I was trying to get the idea of them, rather than get bogged down in all the details. He looked again, more closely and then said, "There's an artist over in Trallee. She does fabulous paintings...looks almost like a photograph, they do. You should go down and have a look at them. She's fabulous!" I told him thanks a million. I'd have to go look. He seemed pleased that he'd imparted his wisdom and that I'd seemed appreciative. Duty done, he made his way along the path.
It's a rare thing, having someone think that what you are doing is crap and not saying so (in so many words). And a rarer thing still to not mind the person thinking it's crap and enjoy the conversation all the more.
