Mazzy

It takes a lot of work to make paintings which appear effortless.

On the day I painted Mazzy in the Queen Anne's Lace, she was not exactly as she appears in the painting. First, I was thrilled to see she had an entire meadow to herself. She was so far away and so well camouflaged that she was hard to see. I stood back and zoomed in with the camera of my eyes and distance sunglasses. I was happy for her and I think she was happy.

After awhile, I was the only guest around. I set up the easel and palette and Mazzy got up and left the meadow. So, I closed up the easel and palette and followed her from beyond the fence. She went indoors, so I went all the way around to the indoor cave and saw her napping in the coolness. I set up the easel again, out of the way of other guests, and watched the tiger. It was just a cat nap, for she was interested in people who had discovered her in the cave. She looked up and that is when I began the painting. I was much closer than I had been outdoors. I painted Mazzy as she was in the indoor habitat. Then she put her head down and fell asleep.

It was time for me to go back outdoors and set up the easel opposite the meadow. I thought of Professor Bunny Harvey from Wellesley College who had said, "paint from memory." Finally, I could do that. I could paint the meadow and sky all around Mazzy, remembering how I had watched her in the meadow for 1/2 an hour earlier. As she slept indoors, I painted the meadow all around her outside, remembering how she had appeared when I first saw her there.

When I painted Mazzy indoors, I remembered the concept of camouflage and knew that I would be painting tall plant stems which would blend with her stripes for camouflage. Having painted other animals in camouflage, I did not want to overdo the camouflage because those paintings have not been popular. While animals love to be camouflaged, people looking at paintings don't love it perhaps as much as I do.

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