Oil Sketch: Dr. Pepper (12 x 16)

Early this morning, as scheduled, I went to Lehigh Acres' Veteran Park with Penny and Terry. I was the first one who got to the park. I was pulling my kit along a shaded path deciding what I was going to paint when I saw a guy leaning on a picnic table in the shade. He opened a Dr. Pepper can and emptied it into his own water bottle and then tossed the can to the ground. "Oh littering! Why are you doing that?" I thought to myself. As I was drawing near, I noticed that he seemed to be pretty bored. So tentatively I asked, "How long are you going to sit here, sir?" He said, "Why?" I told him that if he stayed for an hour, I was going to paint him instead of landscape. He asked, "Are you going to pay me?" I said, "No, but I would give you a nice copy of your portrait." It is my principle that I don't pay casual models en plein air. So I did in New York. Most of the time I didn't even tell them. Then he said I could paint him. He would not go anywhere anyway. Soon Penny and Terry joined me there.

As I was painting, I knew his name was Lawrence. he came from Jamaica, almost 60 years old. Lawrence was not working now. He came to the park everyday, sitting either at the picnic table or on the bench by the tennis course. I had no idea whether he was retired or simply quit working. I remember he mentioned disability or something like that. The whole sketch took not quite an hour and a half. I told Lawrence that if he gave me his phone number, I can bring him an Office Depot copy of the painting next time. However, he said he had just moved to a new place and could not remember his new phone number but he would appreciate it if I could give him a dollar. I did. After Lawrence hit the road, I picked up from the ground the two Dr. Pepper cans he tossed and dropped them in the trash can.

After I made this post, one of my friends E-mailed me saying that Lawrence was possibly a homeless. That really made me feel bad. I never thought of that because he was decently dressed and wore new shoes. He was very particular about the cool temperature of his soft drinks when he emptied the Dr Pepper can into the bottle with a freezing stick in it. As for the money he asked, it happened to me before. Once I was painting in downtown Fort Myers, a guy approached me asking to borrow my cell phone. After he used the phone, he asked me for money, too. Oh well, I will never let people know in future if I am going to paint them en plein air.