painting a cafe from the imagination

So we take an idea, I want to paint a cafe image in oils.
Not one I've just been to, but what a cafe means to me from my imagination

To me, it's my childhood.
Hours spent at the Speedy Bar, where I hung out as a teenager, nursing a chip buttie and a glass of warm pop
or the Gingham Kitchens, where I enjoyed a coke float wishing I could manage another.

So we start with the chairs and the gingham table cloths, the old fashioned lights, condensation at the kitchen area

quickly covering the canvas with my first thoughts and impressions





It is left to dry for a week

and I start to define the salt pepper & tablecloth
although I get lost counting the faded green red pink checks ..........................

so I move over, & put an impression of myself as a teenager in there




which I take out just as readily
to put emphasis on the lighting, & this will now throw the cafe into some darkness I suppose



then finally I want to bring the lights up, define what stands for the kitchen area at the back

& add some cork screws next to the salt and pepper mills - it's probably now licensed




I could do more, add a ketchup tomato shaped squeezy bottle, but I decide to end the image here as it feels just as I wanted it to look from the back of my memory 30 years ago