THE POOL BOYS

Sometime during our winter stay in Barbados in 2019, someone took this great shot.
Here are Paul, Gary, Claude, Peter and Peter, fondly referred to as “The Pool Boys”.

They are like “canaries in the coal mine”. If you see them sitting at the edge of the pool,

you know you won’t be swimming in the sea that day. As a fibre artist, I

knew this would make an amazing hooked mat. 

With the help of an online photo editing program, I cropped the image to get in closer.

I also used an art effect to produce a simple-value sketch, sort of like paint-by-number.

The online editing software is called PhotoMania. It has many artistic effects that help

create these simple “paintings”.

There were many challenges in creating this mat.

First was the perspective. It is fore-shortened, so the torsos are much larger than the lower bodies.
The skin tones above the water are completely different from the skin tones under the water.
And the refraction of the light and movement of the water create the "illusion" of legs and feet.

This was definitely an exercise in “hook what you see, not what you think you see”. 

There was much trial and error. Much “backing up” and re-hooking many parts.

And it taught me more than any other piece I have created in close to 20 years.

So it is very special.

Here is the finished mat. Each of the "boys" and their wives will get a print of this mat,

but the original will stay with me. As a fantastic memory and an excellent teaching piece.