summertime door
A cellphone shot of the door on an old shed, near Barnes Corners, NY, on the Tug Hill Plateau.
I like the faded colors on it, wish I had a striped shirt like that.
I tend to like colors that have weathered a bit – had some of the newness rubbed off, like faded blue jeans.
A lot of the old-time paints, some of the oldest, I guess, used things from the earth, like iron oxide.
This reminded me, visiting The Cloisters, a museum in Washington Heights. Studying a medieval image – cracked, dim, remote – a docent mentioned that the underpainting, the layer under the face, was usually composed of greenish minerals, to tone down the pinks & reds, and get a more realistic skin tone. But those ruddy pigments don’t last forever. The face, no longer in the pink, now has a greenish cast to it, like an alien, just visiting this planet, whose disguise is wearing off.
The undercoat is called “Green Earth,” and as the image of some forgotten aristocrat fades, the Green Earth shows itself, “unaffected by light or chemicals.”
Isn’t that great?
Well, headed back to Milwaukee in about four hours, we’ll see what’s going on with those Badger State folks, see ya!
Gorgeously composition and a fabulous old door
Glad you liked it! 😊
That’s a big change, a return to the place that Schlitz beer claimed to have made famous. Let’s hope you find your own fame and fortune there.
Your multishadowed door is appealing. I don’t know about a striped shirt per se but you could have your photo printed on a T-shirt.
I had a shortsleeved shirt kind of like that, that I wore until it disintegrated. I like the T-shirt idea.
Hi. Beautiful photo. In Milwaukee will you be working from home?
Thanks Neil, yes for another month or so
Have a great time in Milwaukee Robert! Loved this photo…it’s “acid-washed” to me. Be well, Badger!
Thanks, Bill, yes! the cool jeans, right?
Right! Ha ha
Old doors have their own kind charm and when viewed a little closer have a story to tell. Have fun in Milwaukee, Robert!
Thank you, Peter. I’ll still be working from home for a while, but there’s plenty of work to do, and I’ll start taking another class (online) in ten days. 😊
Beautiful. Wow. Tug Hill. It’s been years…
They’re getting so much snow in recent years, it’s a real mecca for X-country skiing, snowshoeing, and skimobiles of course. Pretty quiet in the summer.
That’s what I like. Quiet summer.
Dazzlingly dappled.
Thanks, Denzil, and nice alliteration!
How full was the flight to Milwaukee?
The colors in this bring to mind how one can go to just about any big city Goodwill or similar secondhand store and find polos, rugby and oxfords in about a hundred colors, a few feet before they tint into the next. Maybe not quite so many of the seafoam like here.
It was Syracuse to Charlotte, then Milwaukee – – both flights pretty full. I wore a shirt that was my grandfather’s, a pretty wild paisley, he didn’t go clothes-shopping, so I’m guessing one of my aunts picked this out
A shirt in those colors would be very nice!
I’m glad you think so too! 👨🏼🎨
That’s such a nice summertime scene and photo!
Thank you, Liz, it was such an appealing old building. 🏡
Blues and greens are so appealing together. Great find, Robert. 🙂
Thanks, Jane. I have no artistic ability, but man I love colors, and this old shed really appealed to me.
Disagree about your artistic ability! 😉
Nice blog
😊 Thank you
Clothes make the man. Well, of course not really. But a shirt like this would say a lot about you…in a good way. I like the shadowplay with the colors.
The colors are both scrumptious and comfortable. They remind me of well-worn summer play clothes when I was a kid. The dappling is a real plus. It brings to mind the photos I took of the leaves’ shadows during the last total solar eclipse. You did a great job of combining the sharpness of the door’s details and the just-fuzzy-enough leaves.
Thank you, Linda. I’ll keep the picture on my phone, for the next time I go clothes shopping, to show the salesclerk – “Hi, you got any shirts that look like this?”
I once witnessed a woman walking up to the paint counter at Home Depot with an eggplant in her hand. She said to the clerk, “My house is gray, and I want a front door this color. Can you scan this eggplant and mix paint to match it?” The clerk could, and he did.
😂 that’s great!! haha, brilliant.
An old door observed through a dense filigree of summer growth – so nice! Brilliant narrative! Who knew about the green under the pink, but that makes sense. It all makes sense in Barnes Corners, I suspect. 🙂
Thank you, Lynn. And just a bit north, I think, is Cronk Corners.
There’s an artist who does paintings of historical scenes, I think it’s either Don Troiani or Robert Griffing, and he always starts with burnt sienna underpainting. Who knows what all this stuff will look like in five hundred years.
Just goes to prove people in old paintings were Vulcans. Makes you wonder what’s behind the door…
maybe a Tardis. But more likely a lawnmower
A cool image, Robert. An Impressionist could do wonders with that door.
Thank you, Mark, I bet you’re right.