When I was little, my mom always took me to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, and it would be a glorious weekend of being able to very easily imagine that I was a little girl going on the monthly trip to the general store, buying a candy stick that would taste so wonderful because it was such a rare treat, smelling beeswax candles and browsing all of the beautiful calico prints that would be made into new dresses for a barn-raising or a traveling fair. This illustration is a nod to those truly golden moments of my own childhood, but was also inspired by a wonderful book I was reading at the time I painted it: Little Heathens by Mildred Kalish. Her vivid stories of growing up on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression are simultaneously entertaining, shocking and wistful, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in American history. 

All of my watercolor prints are created with love and care on my Canon Pixma Pro 100 printer. They are museum-quality, printed on 240gsm Aquarelle Rag, which is gorgeous, 100% cotton and acid-free, which means they will last for a very, very long time. 

Prints will arrive unframed, covered with a protective plastic sleeve in a sturdy recycled flat mailer with a piece of scrap chip board for extra support. 

I take a lot of pride in the  quality of my prints, and strive to photograph them as accurately as possible, but please be aware that every monitor is different, and it's possible that the colors in your print will differ slightly than how it appears on your computer screen. 

This work and all related text are ©2016 by Aly Parrott. Please do not reproduce or resell without permission.