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This was my first painting of 2012. 
"Twin Tractor" 5x7 watercolor on paper ©2012 Holly B. Johnson
I finished it a couple of weeks ago but I came across the idea for the painting last March. Robert was finally finishing up grad school and we wanted to make sure we took advantage of his very last spring break. So, where to go? What to do? Party it up in Panama? Skiing in Colorado?? Vegas, baby??? Yeah right. Like any of those are affordable options for a grad school student and an artist. We packed a cooler and some clothes, loaded up Rusty, and made the roughly 6 hour drive to Murfreesboro, Arkansas, 
We splurged on this little cabin. A luxurious upgrade from camping!
to dig in the dirt. 
What? You don't do manual labor on your vacations?
for diamonds. Yup, digging for diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park, the only diamond site in the world where you can keep whatever you find. It was a lot of fun. Sorta like a cross between an Easter egg hunt, and digging for buried treasure. And it was addicting! Hard to walk away when it felt like you could be this close to finding riches. 
This shovel marks the spot where the largest diamond found by a park visitor was unearthed. It was a whopping 16.37 carats before it was cut into a beautiful 7.54 carat stone! Um, wow.
The thing about Murfreesboro, AR though (approx. population 1,800) is this- besides looking for diamonds, ain't a whole lotta else to do. So we went fishing,
"I know I just scared all the fish away, but I'm bringing you this really great stick."
and we drove around. Which finally brings me to this- 
a bright blue Ford tractor with a white stripe
that reminded me so much of this- 
our bright blue Ford truck with a white stripe
 Seriously y'all, it was like we'd found the truck's brother from another mother. Immediately I wanted to paint it. I liked the bright blue color and that 90's look the tractor itself had. I snapped a few pics for reference and mentally added it to my "to paint list." (Which by the way, is quite a lengthy list so this tractor is lucky to have made it off of there!) I added the little bird perched on top of the tractor because I think living things just make a painting come more alive. Plus I thought the contrast between a soft delicate creature and a hulking piece of machinery would be cool. And just in case you're wondering, several diamonds were found while we were at the park.
Just not by us.
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