Bartholomew Cotton Esquire stood stock still as he was having his photo made. He'd been informed that he must go to the studio of the man now standing in his Louisburg Square drawing room. He'd have none of it.
"No silly painted Roman ruins nor busts made from plaster of paris for me," he'd told his secretary. "He'll have to come to me. I am, you see, a simple man.
And as Bartholomew Cotton bid, so it came to pass. The photographer and his assistant trudged their equipment through narrow brick and cobble roads from questionable addresses in the South End to the subdued Brownstone on Beacon Hill.
"I'm a simple man and standing by my simple Tiger maple Secretary will do me just fine. I've no need for all the frills." Said Bartholomew. Tho his 'simple tiger maple secretary' had been made when the colonies where young and handed down to him. His Puritanical mind gave that he was 'simple and unadorned' but his Louisburg brownstone and countless acres scattered all over the city and into the countryside told another story.
Bartholomew Cotton Esq. was, if one asked him, a Simple man.
The sketch before color is added.
I'm excited to begin creating creatures from New England. My previous characters ,which I'm still having fun making and dreaming up their lives, live happily in England. However, it seems only fitting they should have their American Cousins.
Some of the layers in GIF form.
I think because I grew up on old Victorian books filled with stories of the English countryside it just comes naturally to me to write in that way. When my characters are born and ramble onto my page it is in English villages and rambling old houses dotting Ole' Blighty's fields that appear. I suppose what we know as a child often shapes what we think 'normal' as adults.
In comparison to a modern 5 year old who holds an i-pad, I was given old Victorian children's books, often earlier than 1870's, filled with illustrations faded but enticing. it makes me wonder what the 5 year olds of today will be writing about when they have grown...will they write?
I do hope you like my latest character as I begin to think of my NEW England creatures. I'm still having fun with them and that is my goal. This year's resolution has been to follow the path of joy in my studio. What draws me to sketch and dream is what I'll create.
Bunny Portraits
