Wednesday, November 20, 2013

A Voice From the Past (oil on canvas, 2013)


(Private Collection)
Back view of the old McBride homestead. The tall pine tree and porch on the right also appear in the last painting that I posted and I've painted and drawn several views of this subject over the past two years. This house has been vacant for a long time, but I've always been drawn to it and am interested in learning its history. Buildings have their own stories.....and scars and memories.....and ghosts. I recently travelled to Erie, PA for a show of my work at the Kada Gallery, with this painting, still quite wet, in the back seat of my rental car. The rental car, fortunately, was upgraded to an small SUV, which turned out to be a very good stroke of luck because I never would have fit this wet canvas, along with thirteen other paintings, three suitcases (I overpacked a bit!), my backpack full of pastels (which I never got to use because it snowed during the three days that I was in Erie) and my coffee beans and brewing equipment (which I never leave home without!) in the car that I had reserved. Whilst stopping at my parents house in MA, I found an old monotype that I had done in college and wanted to take it home with me. I put it in the back seat, behind this wet painting, which turned out to be a very bad idea because at the stop sign at the bottom of the steep hill that my parents live on, the monotype, framed under glass and quite heavy, leaned forward, pushing the wet painting onto the backs of the car seats! No damage to the painting, but enough of that yellow-green (cadmium, no less!) on the fabric of the seats to cause me quite a bit of stress! But, thanks to a bottle of "Totally Awesome" all purpose cleaner (an indispensable product in any artist's studio)and a rag, I was able to remove all of the paint from the seats and be on my way, leaving the framed monotype at my parents' house.

1 comment:

martinealison said...

Bonjour,

Une très belle peinture... Une bien jolie manière que de donner une autre vie à cette maison qui a une âme. J'aime beaucoup l'harmonie des couleurs. Une magnifique palette !

Je peux comprendre le "hic" avec la peinture sur les sièges de votre voiture ! On redoute toujours que cela ne parte pas en nettoyant ! Une fois je me suis assise sur ma palette fraîche avec une très jolie tenue !!! Fichu !...
En revanche cet été mon tout jeune dalmatien avait pris en bouche un tube tu peinture à l'huile. Il l'avait suffisamment mordillé pour répandre la peinture sur l'ensemble de son pelage, museau compris ! La scène se passait dehors heureusement aussi !
Les jours précédent j'avais acheté un excellent shampoing pour chien. Je ne pouvais pas le nettoyer à l'essence ou au white spirit ! Croyez-moi le shampoing fut génial... employé presque pur, une noisette seulement et l'ensemble de sa robe fut récupérée ! A essayer peut-être sur les tissus !
Gros bisous à vous