Cherry Parsons Who Forgot the Fish Design walking stick umbrella

Cherry Parsons Art brings to life the fabulous seagull designs on these printed umbrellas.

“Who Forgot the Fish?” I was painting a picture of the Brighton skyline, like a silhouette or Blueprint, on a large canvas. I was only partway through when my daughter said: “I like that mum- stop there!”
If you know me, you would know that’s a tough thing for me to do, as I do like to work deeply into my paintings – refining every little detail.
I started to paint another canvas on the same theme, but I put a bit more detail into that one. I then painted the third picture in the range. This last one reminded me of something…..
The famous photograph from the promotion of the Rockefellers Building in New York in 1932. It is called “Lunch atop a Skyscraper.” By Charles C Ebbets. The picture depicts 11 workers sitting on a beam high over New York eating their lunch.
So… I painted a beam into my final picture.
Obviously, you can’t make seagulls sit down cross-legged or read the paper. So I painted 11 seagulls standing on the beam eating their lunch.
If you compare the original picture and my painting, you will see that I have tried to get the head alignments and heights in similar positions to the photograph. The seagulls, instead of lunchboxes, have the sachets of Heinz Ketchup, Tartar Sauce and chips, plus one holds a pea. The last three have nothing. The one thing that is missing from this meal is a lump of fish. Hence the name “Who Forgot the Fish?”