This is a composition
really just the hint of an idea
which I’ve had in the working sketchbooks for many years.
I dabbled in bookbinding for awhile
as one does
and so the props were readily at hand.
And the model
or poseur as it were
was also to hand
or at least passing through.
Peter uses our house as a stop
on his workshop teaching routes.
It is always the highlight of my year
when we get a chance to
as Herself likes to quip
spit scratch and tell lies.
I never lie and I’ve never seen Peter spit
but there you are.
We have a blast.
On one of those return trips he arrived very late
after filming episodes of The Woodwright’s Shop with Roy Underhill.
I’ve got no shame dropping his name here
because it’s a wicked cool thing that Peter and I both watched his PBS show
even before we were aspiring woodworkers
and I’m so thrilled that they are now friends and fellow scholars.
But I bring it up here
to place emphasis on the very late
and very tired northbound traveler.
Peter was exhausted.
But he was also planning to book outta here
before the wrens’ started singing the next morning
and I had a little request.
Please, after spending hours and hours in front of a camera
would you please…
sit in front of a camera
and pose for me.
With no time for an elaborate set up
I plunked him in the office at the round cherry table
and brought down my binding frame.
Couple of practices with the gesture
and click, I had my reference.
I pushed my luck and had him do a twofer
and model for a second composition idea
which became the core of Master Carver’s Tea.
Since the orchestration for that comp was further along
I put it at the head of the line and the Bookbinder sat…in the books.
Then we went to Ireland.
At the end of our tour we visited the Rock of Cashel.
In the adjoining Hall of Vicars
I found a collection of Irish furniture that resembles the era of 17th century carvings
which Peter specializes in but what I also saw was a possible reference
for the table I have been pondering for yet another painting
which is even deeper in the wings of my sketchbooks.
I took photos for Peter’s archives and for my own.
Now we creep forward to this past winter
when I was eager to sink my chops
into something completely different and challenging.
I dug back and found the initial sketches for the bookbinder
remembered the table and carvings
and thought the Irish antiquities could just be grand.
What you see before you is the culmination
of decades of rumination
and a frisson of serendipity.
I waited all this time
for that wren to wake up
and sing she did.