Two ooh-moments and an encounter with the Gladys Kravitz society chapter of Kennett Square

It’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood. Could you be my neighbour? Oh hey there, Gladys Kravitz! How’s Ebnar Kravitz doing on this beautiful bright sunny day?

I rode my bike into town to find a subject to paint. I spotted these tulips and I went “ooh!” As it had turned out, my new friends, Matt and Tracy live next door! Hey there neighbours!

I setup on Matt and Tracy’s property to paint their neighbour’s tulips. Only the third leg of the tripod was inches over on the other property. Their neighbour rightfully came out to investigate my presence and asked me what I was doing. “I’m painting your tulips”, I said quite excitedly.

They looked at me rather confused. I saw bubble thoughts popped over their heads, “Tulips? We have tulips?” I pointed at their pretty tulips and they seemed somewhat confused that they have tulips along their fence. “Okay,” they said, and I thought that was it.

About 15 minutes later an officer came to investigate. Apparently they have called the police on me. While the first officer was vetting me another officer came by! “Wow,” I thought, “I must be special.” It’s nice to know that my city’s police force is well equipped with bulletproof vests and body cameras! I gave them what they have kindly requested of me — my identification, my home address, and phone number. Standard procedure. No big deal, I obliged so that they could do their law enforcement and safety duties, and I could go back to my work.

The first time this happened was two years ago when someone called the police on me. Unlike recently, I was on public sidewalks. Not satisfied that the officer vetted me, had an amicable chitchat and shared some humour, the lady who reported me to the police stalked me in her black SUV all the way to the baseball field. I guess she wasn’t please that I was let go. 

Matt, Tracy and I had a good laugh about the incident. Not to be deterred, I left their house to the next painting spot. I liked the building on Maple Street behind the green building I painted the previous day on State Street and Church Alley. It appeared unoccupied but I don’t think it was abandoned. It probaly could become a nice atelier.

Anyway, it was around the same time and I liked how the light and shadow were draping across the the house on Maple Street. It was another ooh-moment in Kennett Square, and square-mile Kennett Square has plenty of ooh-moments. 

Oil on panel, 8 by 6 inches.