Pink Magnolias

"Steel magnolias" Has it really been that long since this movie came out?! 1989 seems like eons ago. But this movie came to mind when I started painting these beautiful blossoms. Women with friendships as strong as steel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viYNlGoOQUE

I also thought of times long past when I decided to strike out on my own. The first house that I bought wasn't much. It was an old two story house that needed tons of "TLC" as we here in the real estate business like to call it. I scraped and painted, I wallpapered and patched, I tore up the carpet and found hardwood floors that needed sanded and varnished. I even stenciled:

Cows

in the kitchen

on walls that I had painted pink

Yes sir, I did. And no one to tell me that I couldn't, not anymore. But I finally came to my senses and repainted that kitchen...eventually.

I bought that house for $8,800. I viewed it at 7 am before going to work. All I had was $50 cash in my wallet. The real estate agent took my $50 and wrote out a receipt on a scrap piece of paper. Later in the day, her boss called to tell me he was sorry that I couldn't buy the house because an investor wanted it. And I told him I was sorry for the investor because I had a receipt for the down payment and I had no intentions of letting it go. All I had to do then was figure out how I was going to get the other $8,750. All I had to my name was a Chevy Nova and no fear. I went to the bank and got a loan using my wages and that Chevy Nova as collateral. I got the house and a whole lot of work that went with it. I guess you could say real estate was a lot easier back in the early 1990's.

Sometimes I dream of that house, we were so young, me and the girls. It was the first time that I was truly on my own and I had to figure it all out. Life was hard, but it was good too. In my dreams we are always there together, family has arrived from out of state, and we are in the kitchen cooking and laughing, planning our day trip or our next little adventure. We have all moved on since then, and some are no longer with us. Sometimes, it seems that life really does fly by with us hardly ever noticing.

And perhaps I think of that house because I decorated it the way I wanted to. I found a wall carving of magnolias, similar to the one shown below. I loved that plaque, it seemed to fit the old house. It stayed in that house until I moved to the next house and the next until finally when I moved yet again, I donated it to Goodwill with a lot of other things that had accumulated over the years.

So, you see how a simple painting of magnolias took me on a trip down memory lane? I do hope the magnolia wall plaque found a good home. Mine wasn't all cream colored, it was cream, green and pink. And as Julia Roberts says in the movie Steel Magnolias: "Pink is my signature color."

My painting was created following the color selections of Louise di Masi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDzWJdwAoyQ&t=2s

I used her reference photo and one found on pixabay:

Painted on Arches cold pressed watercolor board, 10 x 14 inches, 300 lb, using only two colors: Veridian Green and Permanent Rose.

I hope you enjoyed this little jaunt down memory lane with me.

Cheers,

Helen

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