Davis Shores
While I was drawing this house a man came out from the house behind me and asked me if I'd draw a picture of his house for his father. With him were three little kids sucking at ice creams and cans of coke.
'Yes, I'll draw your father's house,' I said.
Then it started to rain slightly so they all ran inside and I started packing up.
'Come up and get my card,' he called out.
After I'd put my drawing stuff in the car I went to look for the guy. I found his apartment at the top of some stairs.
'C'mon in,' he said, 'you wanna beer?'
After I said no to the beer he introduced me to his wife, who was called Sherri, or maybe Candy, and his three boys.
Then he went looking for his business card and I stood in the doorway staring at the TV while the rest of the family stared at it from the sofa.
They were watching a show about killer snakes.
'Y'see that kids,' Sherri/Candy said, 'that snake bit that little boy and all the skin fell of his face.'
California Style
While I was drawing this, the owner of the house pulled up in her car, crossed the road to see what I was doing, and said, 'Oh my thats pretty, I'm going to send my husband out,'
About half an hour later the husband crossed the road, stood to my right, looked down at my drawing and the started telling me the history of the suburb.
'It's California style,' he told me. 'I've had the house 21 years but it'd been standing for 20 before we got it,'
Then he told me his son still lived at home, but that his daughter had gone.
'This was the first suburb built on the island and there's no sewerage system.'
Then suddenly he changed the subject.
'What's a pretty young thing like you doing with all that mess up your arms,' he said pointing at my tattoos, 'and on your legs?
White House with Flag (sold)
While I was drawing this the tourist trolley went up and down the street, filled with people wearing sun visors and overs-sized tee shirts.
A few cars pulled in and out of the driveway, and for a while someone even parked on the front lawn. But I drew around the car.
Then a pair of women stopped and
I took my head phones off and looked up at them.
'My, that's pretty,' one of them said, referring to my drawing.
'She does water colours, don't you, honey,' said the other one, smiling and looking over at the woman who'd spoken first.
'Nice,' I said as they walked off.
Then, taking a break as the church bells began to ring, I put my headphones back on an listened to Kris Kristofferson singing Sunday Morning Coming Down while I ate an entire packet of Cheetos, a small, cheese-flavoured, processed yellow snack food shaped like a turd.
Pink House with Fonds (sold)
While I was drawing this house I was on red alert because behind me was a bush where I knew a snake lived.
But by the time I'd gotten to drawing the power lines, I'd forgotten all about the serpent and when the dark haired woman with the blond dog passed and smiled and said 'Mornin' I smiled and said 'Mornin' right back.
The Sunshine Shop
While I was drawing this a car went past and bipped it's horn really loudly.
Annoyed by the disturbance, I looked up to see the guy shouting and waving out of the car window at me.
And he shouted - 'You drew my house' and I realised it was the guy from a few days before, the guy who lived in the white house and had loved Sydney.
So I started smiling and waving and yelling back hi, hi, hello.
Suburban Yellow
While I was drawing this house 3 small children stood in the front window waving and banging on the glass.
After a while, not wanting the parents to think I was a child molestor, I crossed the road and knocked on the front door. I could hear the children inside shrieking.
A man opened the door. 'I'm drawing your house and your children are watching and I don't want you to think I'm some kind of weirdo or anything,'
The man started to laugh, in a high-pitched almost hysterical squeak, the kind of laugh one might laugh after having been trapped inside with 3 children all day.
'Was that a girl?' I heard one of the children say as I turned to cross the road back to my easel.
Savannah Street Corner (sold)
While I was drawing this I watched a man drive around the block several times and then pull up at the curb in front of the house.
The car was full of rust and when he got out the driver's side door made a screeching noise.
The man walked left, past the front of the house, and went around the corner.
I was looking at his car thinking it looks like a car a junkie or a killer or paedophile might drive in an episode of Law and Order.
I was drawing the part of the curb that fell in shadow when the driver came back, followed by a teenage girl and a well dressed blond woman.
As they got in the car to drive off, a young man and woman pulled up on bicycles, chained them to bottom of the stair railing and went upstairs.
The Red Roof
While I was drawing this house a young guy with no shirt but a lot of tattoos passed with his dog.
'Is that a Border Collie?' I said.
'Yeh,' he said.
'I love Border Collies,' I said.
'Yeh.' he said.
The Pool Steps (sold)
While I was drawing this a black snake came out of the bushes behind below the palm tree, across the grass, under the fence, crossed the path and then disappeared, and I said, 'Ooh, look, there goes a snake.'
2 blond women, who had been laying on sun loungers reading books, now began to shriek and jump up and down, just like women in a cartoon who'd seen a mouse.
Pool and Palm
While I was drawing this, a girl got out of the pool, came over and stood dripping in front of me with the hands clutched under her chin and and said, 'Ma'am, can I see what you're drawing?'
'Of course you can,' I said, 'come behind me and have a look,'
'My,' she said, 'that's really good,'
Then suddenly, there were about 4 little girls standing around saying things like, 'Ooh, that's pretty,' and 'I wish I could draw like that'.
Pool Steps with Fence Shadow
While I was drawing this, because it was early in the morning, nothing much happened.
6 Feet Deep
While I was drawing this children kept getting in and out of the water, bombing and splashing each other, playing underwater fetching games with pieces of plastic.
Then I'd to stop drawing, eat some Cheetos, and wait until the water calmed down again so I could start drawing.
in the end I shouted at the children, 'You're messing up my view.'
Half Pool, More or Less
'What are you doing?' she said.
'I'm drawing a picture,'
'What are they?' she said, pointing at my pastels.
'Pastels,' I said.
She stood there for a moment looking down at the pastels.
'Would you like to draw?'
'Awesome!' she said, clapping her hands together and doing a little jig.
Savannah Square
While I was drawing this, a blond woman with a whippet crossed the square in my direction. As she passed behind me I could tell that her and the dog had stopped and were looking down at my picture.
I took my head phones off and turned and looked up at her.
'Hello,' I said.
'Wow wee,' she said looking from the drawing to the house and back, 'you got that light there just right,'
'Thank you,' I said.
'Are you selling them?' she said.
'Are you buying?' I said back.
She laughed.
Mercer Williams House (sold)
While I was drawing this a man came up and started talking to me and after some small talk got on the subject of God.
He was a big fan of God and he talked to me for quite a while on the topic until he he told me he too was an artist and had drawn a comic book, which he then took out of his backpack and showed me.
I told him it looked very good and good luck with it.
Then he told me that he didn't have a job, that he lived on the street and did odd jobs for people.
I felt like asking him why, if God was so amazing, he didn't get him a job and his own house.
But I didn't.
The House Opposite John's
While I was drawing this a guy came out of the house behind me and said, 'Hey my wife just rang me and said there's some cute girl out front doing some painting.'
'Oh, yes?' I said looking up at him thinking his wife shouldn't have been driving if she thought I was a 'cute girl'.
Then a woman pulled up in the driveway of the house I was drawing and came out to see what I was doing. She had a little girl with her.
'Can I draw?' said the little girl.
I said yes and gave her a piece of paper and a pastel.
Then, holding the pastel like she was going to use it to stab the cat or something, me and the guy and the mother watched as the child started making manic circles all over the paper,
Then the guy asked if he could take a picture of me and the drawing. I said yes and he went inside, came back with a camera and took a picture. Then he said, 'If you want to use the bathroom come on in, the doors open, or if you want a beer when you finish up?'
'Okay,' I said, 'thanks.'
Then, because she'd seen me spraying mine with hairspray, the child asked me to spray her drawing. So I gave it a squirt to fix it.
Then the mother said to the child, 'Come on Chloe, let's go inside,'
Chloe didn't want to go but I gave her a pastel to keep, and another piece of paper, and she went home.
Then the guy, told me he was going inside and to just come in when I finished.
'I want you to see my house,' he said, 'Richard Boone drank himself to death in it.'
Backyard with Fence
While I was drawing this I had the revelation never to out drawing in Florida without bug spray and a hat.
Old Street
While I was drawing this I noticed the car parked in the driveway opposite where I was sitting had an Obama/Biden bumper sticker.
So did three other cars further up the street.
'Hmmm,' I thought to myself, 'I could live in the street'.
Other white House
While I was drawing this a young man came out of the gate next to the garage, walked across the road toward me and asked, 'Do you mind if I have a look at what you're doing.
'No,' I said.
'Hey, that's neat,' He said.
'Thanks,' I said.
'Where are you from?' he said.
'Well, originally I'm from Australia,' I told him, 'but now I live in England,'
'Neat,' he said, 'I lived in Australia for a while,'
'Oh, yes?' I said, standing up to stretch my back which was now hurting from leaning forward toward my easel.
'Yeh,' he said, 'I like totally loved Sydney,'
'Yeh?' I said, 'Well, I like totally love Florida.
'Really?' he said.
'Yeh, really.' I said
Other white House
While I was drawing this the garbage truck came screaming along the road. It was early in the morning, about 7.30am.
I could hear people laughing in the house behind me. It's easy to be happy that early in the morning, when the sun is already up and strong.
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