La Puerta, Peru 14 1/4″ x 10 1/4″ – Arches 140 lb coldpress
Do you ever wonder what’s behind the doors of homes you see in your travels? I kept hoping that someone would open this door and come out…so I could see inside. There were a number of houses like this on road out of Cusco on our way to the death hike to Saqsaywaman. Unfortunately no one came out and invited me in. Bummer. I guess everyone was out in the main square trying to sell tourists Peruvian crap.
I frequently look into people’s homes when I’m walking the dog. One can’t help it. Windows and doors are right on the street so it’s easy to see in. There is a door down the block that I always hope will open as I pass. Whenever Charlie and I are walking the dogs and we see someone coming in or out of the door we try to look in. We are convinced a family of hoarders live there. There’s tons of stuff piled up in that hallway.
On another note, here is a picture of the scarf I finally completed for my sister. I started it in JFK waiting for the flight to Lima, Peru. I finished it shortly after returning from Peru, but it kept curling at the edges so I had to block it. Never having blocked a knitted piece before, I searched the interwebs and found a few options. Here’s a picture of it while it was damp and pinned down waiting to dry. That didn’t work. It still curled.
The technique that finally worked was pressing and steaming it. It finally was flat, but unfortunately it was now about 11 feet long.
Sigh.
I gave it to her anyway and she loved it. But the first day she had it she wore it to an Indian restaurant and got some sauce on it. It now has to be washed. I don’t know, but I suspect it will then have to be blocked again. I’m guessing it will soon be 24 feet long.
I told my sister I would make her another one.
35 comments
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December 6, 2010 at 6:32 am
judylobo
Love the painting and the scarf. How about when the scarf gets to be 24 feet long you cut it i half and give 12 feet of it to me? I am sure that Alice will share.
December 6, 2010 at 9:46 am
Carol King
thanks for your comments on the painting. Good idea about sharing the scarf. I’m sure Alice will share!
December 6, 2010 at 7:20 am
Alice
Carol, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this painting! So beautiful. The textures are wonderful – the roof tiles, the wooden door, the stones. And….The scarf is clean – the sauce from the Indian food washed right out. It was on the very end so I didn’t need to wash the whole thing. No blocking necessary!
December 6, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Carol King
Really? You love, love, love this painting? I’m really glad cause I was hating, hating, hating it while I was doing it. I pulled it together at the last minute. So thanks.
So glad to hear the stain came out of your scarf.
December 6, 2010 at 7:45 am
Rhonda
Beautiful painting! I somehow missed the previous post of your step aerobics in Peru?? Liked that one, too, and feel for you – steps are hard, especially without a break. I bet your trip was gorgeous with lots of photo references for future paintings – looking forward to it. I wouldn’t worry about the scarf – sisters are pretty forgiving and love getting stuff made by their sis 🙂
December 6, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Carol King
Of course you are right about both sisters and steps. Steps are even harder when there’s practically no air!
December 6, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Jala Pfaff
Your painting here almost looks like an oil. Interesting. Before I started painting at all (in any medium), I decided to take a watercolor class. The instructor got the weirdest expression every time he saw what I was doing. Finally he said, “Umm…maybe you would like oil painting?”
And ya know, he was right.
I’m not saying that’s what you should do! just commenting that this piece looks somehow like an oil painting.
“Death hike”: hahaha. I believe it.
The scarf is lovely. I don’t know what blocking is, but it sounds like a pain.
December 6, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Carol King
You know, Bonnie said that my paintings looked like acrylics to her. I guess I’m still working on that classic watercolor look. Or maybe not.
December 6, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Joan T
Great job on the house…love the coloring and the texture. Nice job on the scarf!!!
December 6, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Carol King
Thanks Joan! Glad you like both the scarf and the house.
December 6, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Alex Zonis
Love the colors in the painting! Who knew that brick orange goes so well with bluish pink… Nice composition too, makes me want to jump up to see over the wall. I always want to see what’s inside, your description of your dog walks in the evenings remind me of the walks my husband and I take in the dark looking into peoples windows. Sometimes we just stand in front of someone’s window having a conversation with their dog or cat who’s staring back at us wondering who are these strange people…
December 6, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Carol King
There were some houses that looked like Hollywood sets to me. Meaning, they looked like they were only the fronts of the houses and if you went inside there would be nothing but the vista of the Andes!
December 6, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Beth Parker
Great painting, Carol! I love the colors! I also have a lot of inside the house curiosity. I don’t want to see any people… just their stuff. 😀
Cool scarf, too!!
December 6, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Carol King
I’m with you…..I want to see inside the houses and not necessarily the people.
December 6, 2010 at 7:05 pm
sam
I also love it when daylight savings ends so I can walk the dog in the dark and look in people’s windows. It’s probably creepy to do that, but what else is there when it’s dark all the time? Just think… Solstice is only 2 weeks from tomorrow, and then the days will start getting longer. Then BAM! it’ll be summer, and we can start complaining about the heat.
I’ll take the cold dark any day, when you can wrap 24 feet of a gorgeous scarf around your head and look in people’s windows. I think that blue would look stunning in the mugshot.
December 6, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Carol King
OMG Sam, you crack me up! I would look better with that scarf in a mugshot than Nick Nolte looked with his Hawaiian Shirt, that’s for sure.
December 6, 2010 at 8:48 pm
lesliepaints
Yes. I look in windows of homes at night while walking by. Can’t help it. Some places, I would like to meet those who live there. Much of what interests me about some homes is to imagine the layout and if they have any neat staircases or window seats; things like that. For a brief time, when I was young, we lived in a home that had a staircase from the kitchen and on from the entryway. There was a window and window seat halfway up. My sister and I loved sitting there and telling each other stories about what we saw outside that window. There is no window in this home in Peru. Were they all like that? Do you know why? …or am I just being daft and it is because people look in them? I like this painting. The roof looks hard and you pulled it off. I like the splatter and the touch of graffiti on the left as well as your color choices. The door definitely says, “I’m closed. Do not enter.” Good painting, Carol.
December 6, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Carol King
I guess some of the homes had windows, but many didn’t. But they were also one floor, clearly ramshackle. Maybe there were windows in the back? I enjoyed painting the roof. It reminded me of the houses I did from Istria in previous posts.
December 7, 2010 at 11:25 am
Artswebshow
I think it’s inherently part of human nature to be curious.
I hate it when people say nosy. lol
Perhaps there is some clever business to be made from these scarves.
Block them to 24 feet and cut them into quarters a sell them a fulll price.
Reduce your costs by 4 times then buy one of these houses.
Just a thought. (i did business studies at school, wink)
lol
December 8, 2010 at 9:55 am
Carol King
Richard, you are a genius! And your business studies paid off. I’ll be home furiously knitting regular length scarves that I can iron and stretch to giant scarves to cut and sell. soon I will be rich. THANK YOU!
December 8, 2010 at 12:08 am
francis
The Peru painting is just fantastic. I love the rustic colors and the story behind. Me too, i like to know what behind those door and what is there story. I love the skarf and the colors, my mom used to do knetting work too but it’s very time consuming and need a sturdy hand.
December 8, 2010 at 9:56 am
Carol King
I’m glad you like the painting Francis. And it’s nice to know your mom did knitting. Most people my age do not now how to knit or crochet. It’s a lost art.
December 8, 2010 at 2:02 pm
aswirly
What a beautiful painting and it DOES make me wonder about the inside. I love the evening time when it first gets dark and people haven’t closed their curtains yet… always fun to get a little glimpse inside people’s homes 😉 Lame that your sister got sauce on the scarf…sigh
December 9, 2010 at 10:49 am
Carol King
Luckily my sister said the stain came out with a little soap and water….she didn’t have to wash the whole scarf. glad you like the painting.
December 8, 2010 at 6:04 pm
northpenninegallery
The dog walking thing was very funny. We have a West Highland Terrier by the name of Doris. If she sees an open door, she’ll walk right in! Closed doors into gardens pull at my imagination. Your painting did that too!
December 9, 2010 at 11:02 am
Carol King
hey Keith, I guess it’s all part of the grass is always greener syndrome. Everyone wants to know what’s behind the door or the garden gate.
December 9, 2010 at 5:52 am
Stephen
Nice painting Carol – I like the detail in the roof – in fact I like it all – I have just painted a roof kind of like that but skipped all the detail. So this is inspiring for me.
I love your phlegmatic commentary on the tourist market in Peru.
I always have a laugh here – thanks for that
December 9, 2010 at 11:04 am
Carol King
Stephen, thanks for your comments….I like what you’re doing over on your end too. You always manage to get the essence of something without over working it.
December 10, 2010 at 7:10 am
lindahalcombfineart
Boy have I been out of touch! I missed your whole trip to Peru. Lucky you! I love your very clear eyed and hilarious comments. Both paintings are wonderful and I particularly like the composition and colors in the llama painting. I’m like you always trying to look in…right now with the holiday lights going up it is partiuclarly intriguing. Curiosity keeps us young right?
December 13, 2010 at 10:33 am
Carol King
Thanks Linda, the Peru trip was in September, but it is still strong in my memory. The paintings help to keep the trip alive.
December 10, 2010 at 11:07 am
napabelle
You are quite patient doing all these roof tiles ! Well done! I love the rosy wall, hinting of a sunset. Your scarf is fabulous. Do you know the site ” ravelry.com” for knitters ??
December 13, 2010 at 10:34 am
Carol King
Hi Isabelle, glad you like the painting. I’ve visited Ravelry once or twice but since I only knit once in a while, I’m really not a member.
December 13, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Cathyann Burgess
I thought at first glance that you had tried oils…that is not a bad thing… the richness of the roof is what did it. Nice work, Carol.
When I lived in the Fan section of Richmond, it was always fun to walk out at night and see all the beautiful homes decorated for Christmas. No hoarders here, it seems. I think.
We had our first snowfall last night…so pretty.
ok Now it needs to go away. 2 inches and we had school closings. Really. And the mad dash to the stores for toilet paper. LOL.
Southern living.
oh , yeah…nice scarf, too.:-)
December 13, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Carol King
So many people have commented that my paintings look more like acrylic or oils. I don’t mind. So, thank you. 🙂
I love looking in the windows of the brownstones. There are some amazing details in these old buildings.
December 19, 2010 at 6:39 pm
frankeber
Hi Carol, good job pulling the painting together! Sometimes it’s worth not giving up too soon. The pic of the shawl reminds me of my wife’s activities. You may wanna check out her knitting blog: http://yummyyarn.indus3ous.com/
Big time knitter! Happy Holidays to you!!