Brownies

Brownies in the Kitchen, Acrylic, 18 x 24 inches, 2009


Brownies in the Backyard, 22 x 28 inches, Acrylic, 2009

Brownies -- not the edible or scouting varieties -- are household spirits that do work around the place when no one is looking, often for offerings of food.  They are a part of Scottish folklore, but there are similar creatures native to Scandinavia, Germany, and probably other places.  I thought that a group of them might ideally featured in a whimsical fantasy tableau.  My first picture placed them in a modern kitchen baking things and so forth.  Some are male, some female, dressed similarly, but not identically.  Pleased with the result, I did another, with the brownies doing tasks outdoors. 

Skeptical, but not entirely dismissive of their existence,  I regretfully haven't seen any evidence of brownies or their secretive labors, probably because all the offerings of food get eaten by squirrels.  I do wish they would do the shoveling when the plow pushes snow up on the driveway at two in the morning.  Of course, it might be the brownies, if not some other variety of fairy, that like to pinch my scissors.  I am still looking for a pair of small sewing scissors that vanished many years ago.  However, another pair of scissors, large sewing shears, were returned.  The shears, always in the sewing box, inexplicably disappeared a few years ago.  For weeks I searched high and low for them, couldn't find them, no one had seen them.  I lamented their absence when I was cutting out some material for a pair of pants I was making and had to use a small pair of scissors.  When I replaced the pin cushion to the sewing box, my hand hit something.  There were the shears!  They hadn't been there before, nor had  they been there the other fifty times I looked.  Quite a mystery, not the least part of it being why fairies, supposedly diminutive, would want such a large pair of scissors! 

I was delighted when the kitchen brownies were purchased by a noted chef and restauranteur.

The backyard brownies are currently residing with Washington area dealer Grey Carter.

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