~ Cricket Love ~

This post is based on the belief that as an artist you never know where an idea can come from; This idea for a painting came to me after hearing my brother complain about the cricket chirping outside his window. He said that they were keeping him up late at night and not letting him sleep. I, on the other hand, have always loved having the windows open in the spring/summer time and hearing the chirping outside my window. Curiosity led me to look up the reason for the chirping. It turns out that the chirp is something only male crickets can do. And there are four types of cricket songs; one is a calling song which attract females and repels other males while there is another that is a courting song, which is a very quiet song and is used when a female cricket is near;and of course there are two others. But these were the two that sparked an idea for me. After some failed attempts to capture my own crickets, I went and got one from local pet store. I did some sketch studies of the cricket legs. And a drawing for my "Cricket love" painting, of a male serenading a cute female cricket, who has clearly fallen for the romantic guy.

This is only a section of the painting and is nowhere near being done. Since it was a self motivated piece it was another abandoned painting that had to be put down until there was time for it again. Nonetheless I still enjoyed exploring this subject and learning something new about this insect. It is a piece that i will finish one day. The experience taught me that we never know if an annoying sound to us may be music to someone else's ears ...or feelers :)