Challenge 45 - Approximately 1820 Clay Water Pot

Many of us simply adore flowers. Thanks to all of you at PADT, in the last challenge, we all enjoyed a spectacular display of personal interpretations of one of the most praised flowers on earth – Orchid. Not any Orchid, but one of a kind which proudly takes high place in many most prestigious garden and flower shows.

It did remind us that the winter is almost over and the time of the blooms and gorgeous display of sunshine and glorious spring and summer flowers is just about to start.

Many PADT visitors told me that each painting in this challenge warmed their hearts during the long winter cold and brought joy and happiness making them look forward to the upcoming spring, joy and sunshine – Thank you for that!

About the composition

Last week I vised Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto (Canada), the museum of world culture and natural history. Needless to say how much I enjoyed walking for many hours among artifacts  which are hundreds and thousands of years old, and are so full of character, reminding one of  an  old world long gone by.

The artifacts I am always particularly drawn towards are old pots and hand carved wood furniture. They have so much personality in them, silently telling the amazing stories of the people who used them and cared about them. Whenever I am visiting a new place or a museum, I am constantly hunting for the next one-of-a-kind I have never seen before trying to decrypt the hidden message it carries through the centuries.

This time, in the Toronto Museum, I was very pleasantly surprised to find a number of completely furnished rooms with emphasis on the early French and British cultural legacy. The whole appearance, floor, walls, windows, fireplaces and decorations were as it was at that time, many years ago. It was so beautiful and so heartwarming. I just imagined myself sitting on that old hand carved wooden chair, playing the piano with hand painted Last Supper on its wood cover and listening to the sounds of  a log burning  in the fireplace mixed with the sounds of melting snow and the coming spring.

In one of the English middle class decorated rooms (dating to approximately 1820), I found this full of character, handmade clay pot probably used for hand washing or watering plants. The pot still retains a portion of its initial glazing. In the room full of bookshelves, piano, paintings and antique chairs and tables, it was placed next to a heavily carved wooden table with shadows of the cross wired windows falling on them. The silent call to include it as our next PADT challenge was irresistible.

The whole room was enclosed in a heavy glass walls so it did take many shots before I managed to eliminate the reflections and get a sufficiently clear picture. Just imagine living at that time, two centuries ago, and try to infuse its charm in this small portion of the middle class English household.

Please send your paintings by May 18, 2014. The next challenge will be posted on May 19, 2014.