DeborahSawyer'sArt: Five to Six, Christmas Eve

In my sketchbook

("Five to Six, Xmas Eve" is now in a private collection)

Let's be honest: we've all left it to the last minute at times... Christmas shopping that is...

This painting is actually a rendition of a pen and ink sketch I did for my Christmas card one year. In the first two photos, you can see the original sketch in my sketchbook and then the copy I made to reduce down to a Christmas card-sized print. The cartoon influence is probably seen most strongly in the pen and ink versions rather than in the oil painting. (Those who like to play those "Spot the Difference" games with two pictures can do this with the pen and ink and the final canvas.)

Copied on white paper for eventual reduction

My idea was to capture the absurdity of Christmas shopping. We all know it's coming and, while there are exceptional humans who get it all done by the end of August, most of us don't because we don't know what to buy for other people.

Maybe it's time to change Christmas so that everybody goes shopping for themselves, that way we'd all get what we wanted, retail would not suffer from the lack of Christmas shoppers, and it would be far less stressful. (I'll leave aside the issue of why we don't know what to buy for people we've known for years and years... maybe we'd be better off spending Christmas examining why we know so little about those closest to us...)

Five to Six, Xmas Eve in oils

This painting will be hung in the Eccentricities 2011 Show, the 26th Annual Juried Exposition of Scarborough Arts.

The exhibit starts March 30 and runs through April 17, 2011, at the Papermill Gallery, at Todmorden Mills, 67 Pottery Rd. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Friday 12 noon to 4:30 and 12 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The opening reception is March 31 from 6 to 8 p.m.