This is me, Hee-haw. I’m going to tell you a story. Not just any old story – a really amazing story. I promise. You’re going to see the most beautiful paintings and drawings in the world too. You’ll probably be surprised to see how many pictures I’m in. Hundreds – no, thousands! And that’s because I, Hee-haw, play a very important part in this story.
So many artists have painted me that I’m not only a world-famous supermodel, I also know an awful lot about art. There’s not a
single painter I don’t know about. I know every colour of paint there is. And I can smell from several metres away if a painting is a fake. I always know which country a painting was made in, and I can tell you exactly when. Why? Because I was always there! I would love to share everything I know about art and artists, because I’m such a kind and generous donkey.
Oh yes, I meant to say: I’ve written in the back of the book who made each painting in the story, when they made it and what museum you can see it in.
A practice drawing like this is called a sketch. Usually it’s made quickly, with a pencil on paper. But Jan didn’t use a pencil for this sketch, he used oil paints. And he used a flat piece of wood instead of paper. Painters call that a panel. Jan made this sketch when he was getting ready to make a painting.
While Jan was painting me he suddenly burst out laughing. I couldn’t see what was so funny. Me standing there all serious and quiet as a mouse, and he’s sitting there laughing his head off.
‘I just thought of a joke’, he explained once he could talk again. ‘What has six legs, four eyes, two heads, and a tail?
A man sitting on a donkey.’ Yeah, yeah, really funny - not.
Before the sun went down we walked back through the village to the heath. It was really busy. First we met a few cows we knew among a whole bunch of carts and people, but then I suddenly spotted a donkey I didn’t know. It wasn’t from my family, I could see that immediately. There was a woman in a blue blanket riding on the donkey. She had a really big belly. Bet she’s heavier than two baskets of oranges, I thought. A thin man was leading the donkey carrying the woman. He turned round and winked at her. She smiled sweetly. But suddenly her face changed, and I heard her say, ‘Oh Joseph, are we nearly there? I can’t hold it in much longer. This child wants to come out!.’ And the man replied, ‘Hang on in there Mary, we’ll find a place. It won’t take much longer. There must be an inn where we can stay.’
You’re probably thinking it’s strange that there’s snow in this picture. But like I said before, lots of paintings have been made of my story, in lots of different places. In good weather and bad, sunshine and rain, hail and snow.
another star shooting across the sky. And then you can make a wish. Maybe these people were hoping that a miracle was going to happen. That something would drop down from the sky. Like I said, I didn’t understand the dream at all, but of course I’m just a simple animal, even though I am a donkey.
I stopped for a rest here, and heard an owl hooting. Because I was a bird, I tried to call back to the owl, but instead of a lovely tweeting sound, I made the sound of a donkey: heeeeehaw, heeee-haw…. heeee-haw.
People call this sound ‘braying’. I’ve never really understood why.