"That Too Much"

Painted Saturday morning with Plein Air Nashville and we painted in Centennial Park. Centennial Park was designed and built for the Nashville Centennial celebration in 1897 and is a very unique park for Nashville to have in the heart of the west end of the city. It has gone through some good years and some years you stayed clear of it. Over the last couple of decades they have done a wonderful job of turning it in to a fantastic park with outdoor shows, festivals and every summer, "Shakespeare in the Park." But the main attraction is an exact replica of the Parthenon. Yes, the one in Greece, except ours is not all crumbly and broken! I think it is partly the reason we are referred to as the "Athens of the South".
I had never painted the Parthenon even though I have painted in the park in the past. It just has a lot of drawing and decoration and nice even spaces and measurements that if you miss them by a little it is very obvious, especially in the columns. But I tried it and thought it worked out. I like the view I did through the columns. It actually is a very striking building standing in the middle of the park.
As I was painting though I had tons of spectators. One was a little Asian lady, maybe Japanese(?) and maybe 60 years old or older. She came up in a very heavy accent and told me how good my painting was. She then asked how long it took and if I was going to sell it. I said,"yes" and she said,"how much?" I then told her 400 dollars. She actually grabbed her mouth like I had said the most disgusting and vulgar word you could think of. She then started repeating,"that too much." "That too much. That too much. That too much." I was not sure if she meant that was too much for her to afford or that was too much to ask for the painting. Never did figure that out. But as she was walking away I could hear her say ," it good , but that too much."