Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, We Love You!

Here is a photo of the finished painting. I added a couple more paint colours into the mix for the car to create a more vibrant, toy car yellow. I also increased the values of the darks on the car making it ours as well as the child's centre of interest. To me it just made the painting feel more intimate that way, making us the viewer part of the imaginative experience too. I hope you feel the same way.

Ona

...and all because I had this spare frame...

If you remember I had to buy a frame locally for the MEH!! painting because the one I had ordered over the web had not been shipped in time. It has now arrived so, with a spare frame to hand I thought carefully about what I could paint to fit it. I wanted to choose a subject for the painting that not only fitted the frame colour scheme and size wise but also one in which I could have the opportunity to experiment with glazing to create different effects again.

My inspiration for this painting came from an old photo of my son playing with a bright yellow car that he fondly named 'Chitty' after seeing the stage musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This is a quick snap shot of me adding the final details to the drawing on the watercolour paper. The paper is flat on the table hence the slightly strange persective but it gives you an idea of the size of the painting which is about 24 by 15 inches.

In my reference photo I loved how both the car and Alexander were reflected in our coffee table and it was this that gave me the idea for the title of this painting to be... as both Alex and his reflection stare dreamingly at the car I can almost hear them thinking  'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, we love you!'

Ona