New Series: "27 Dresses"

Late afternoon on Saturday, I was painting on

High Street in the Short North of Columbus, OH.

I talked to some very nice folks while painting that afternoon. One of these folks was also a photographer. He was polite enough to ask me if he could take some photos,

and I asked if he'd send them to me.

His name is Ronell Jones.

Ron, thanks so much for the great photos of me painting the dresses.

Saturday was one of the dates that was scheduled as a paintout day for the Ohio Plein Air Society's upcoming 10th Year Anniversary Exhibition at the Springfield Museum of Art.

The first time I went out to paint in the Short North for this exhibition, the thing that spoke to me was the wedding dress shop.

"White Wedding", 6" x 12", Oil on Panel
Copyright 2011 Debra Joyce Dawson

That was April 30th, just a few days after the royal wedding took place. Yes, I did watch the entire thing, and I can only think that that was part of the inspiration that day.

But it could have just been that I was tired of painting landscape, and this was like painting people, only they didn't move at all.

Still, at the August paintout in Milford, OH, the trend continued when I painted a jewelry store window because it was the best thing I saw that day! In the window were two child-sized manikins dressed in home-made tutu's.

The green tutu was made of a chartreuse feather boa,

and the pink one was out of a net fabric.

The little hands at the bottom were sporting jewelry.

"Too, Too", 12" x 10", Oil on Museum Board
Copyright 2011 Debra Joyce Dawson

Thanks to Martha Carmody for the

above photo of my painting on the easel.
And thanks to my buddy Edie Dean for the title!
Where would this gal be without her friends?

The colors, shapes and textures of the tutu's were irresistible,
and even though I did try to get away and paint that Miami River,

I just couldn't do it.

This window worked its magic on me.

So after that second painting, I made the decision

to do a series named after the movie
"27 Dresses".

As I painted the third in the series, a man walked by me, saying as he passed me the second time, "Always a bridesmaid, never the bride?", and a dress disappeared from the window and reappeared later, like magic! I never saw it go or come back, I only missed it when I went to define that area of my painting.

The public is delighted with these paintings, and they seem to lead to lots of conversations on the street; five artists stopped at my easel on Saturday to talk, and to tell me what I was doing right or wrong; and one of them decided that she liked that subject so much that she too needed to paint this window. So the cat is out of the bag now.

I was trying to keep my dresses in the closet for a while, but not now.

And what a joy to have friends with cameras and titles!

Thanks again Ron, Martha and Edie.