"Dipping Drake" 16 x 20 oil on canvas Years ago I promised myself that, if I ever wrote a book on art (fat chance), I would have a chapter entitled, "Don't Ever Paint the Rear End of a Duck." Let me explain.
I had just begun to learn how to paint in oil glazes and I needed subject matter, so when we were walking near the harbour, I snapped a shot of a mallard drake. At the moment I clicked, he ducked his head for a nibble. Being far-sighted, I didn't see the image until we were home but, also being an optimist, I judged it to be a perfectly good angle of the handsome fellow and, besides, the water rings were beautifully concentric. Yes there was some floating garbage, but I could choose not to paint that.
Several months later, said drake was hanging in an art show when a friend asked me something surprising: "Why did you paint a fat man?" I put this down to her near-sightedness until another person said, "Why would you waste a good painting on such a silly subject?" I assumed she had an irrational dislike of waterfowl. Only later when a third led me to the painting to ask why I titled a fat man floating on his back as "Dipping Drake" did I realize that this painting was no longer under my control.
I had just begun to learn how to paint in oil glazes and I needed subject matter, so when we were walking near the harbour, I snapped a shot of a mallard drake. At the moment I clicked, he ducked his head for a nibble. Being far-sighted, I didn't see the image until we were home but, also being an optimist, I judged it to be a perfectly good angle of the handsome fellow and, besides, the water rings were beautifully concentric. Yes there was some floating garbage, but I could choose not to paint that.
Several months later, said drake was hanging in an art show when a friend asked me something surprising: "Why did you paint a fat man?" I put this down to her near-sightedness until another person said, "Why would you waste a good painting on such a silly subject?" I assumed she had an irrational dislike of waterfowl. Only later when a third led me to the painting to ask why I titled a fat man floating on his back as "Dipping Drake" did I realize that this painting was no longer under my control.
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