The book for the month of June is “The Power of One”. I really loved this book and it has become one of my favorites.
For this month’s artwork I began with a South African sunset. Here, I used the mountains where the main character, Peekay, was raised with the sun at the point of disappearing behind him. This is a special time of day and I wanted to use that and the different hues this time of day brings.
This painting is imagining what Peekay might look like when he is a very young boy, five or six years old, when he was away at the tiny Boer finishing school. This was a very difficult time for Peekay and his only friend was a chicken named “Grandpa Chook”.
I have use Peekay and Grandpa Chook’s silhouettes that are made by the full moon’s light shining down upon them. Peekay stands in the white moonlight’s beam as they walk in the field behind the boarding school. You can see the brown/gold/white rocks cropping up from the ground and the shadows light and dark this time of day throws off. It was fun trying to make these characters come alive and I hope you like them too!
– Charles Don Flores
June 23, 2024