Original watercolor painting, 8x10 inches with a one inch border around the painted image.

Hand Me Downs is a watercolor painting of vintage tools set against a flat blue backgound. The inspiration for this piece came from a collection of tools that I have in my wood shop. These are tools that have been handed down at least for 3 generations in my family. The men in my family have traditionally been handy men around the home and their tools are a testament to my Grandfathers ingenuity and creativity. My Grandpa Albert taught me early in life that you can fix anything with bailing wire and a pair of pliers. Having the right tools for the job has been an ever presence in my life. I use them at work, and at play, tools have certainly broadened my life experiences.

The composition of the hand drill, measure tape and pliers forms a classical triangle composition. The warm colors of the tools invite the viewers eye in from the cool blue background and intertwine your a sense of history as the sweat, weather and work has worn petinae of the instruments. The use of complimentary colors is typical of my work, as warm orange highlight’s the subjects. This another work where I have experienced with a pointillism technique not often seen in watercolor paintings.