Today was the second (and final!) day working on this painting. We’ve had some rain and warmer weather so the snow was melting and things were slushy. We also has a 3.8 magnitude earthquake this morning, with the epicenter about an hour north.
It immediately became clear that I’d have to change the painting to incorporate the now visible grass and the slushier snow.
Painting begins on Day 2 with the snow melting
Not long after I’d started painting I turned around to see a reporter and a videographer standing nearby. They asked me if I’d felt this earthquake this morning. I said “No, but things seem to have shifted slightly between day before and today.” The clip showed up on the evening news today and is embedded and linked to below. Pretty hilarious. I guess I can now put an ‘as seen on TV’ sticker on the painting. (as a side note, the reporter seriously deserves an award for pronouncing my name perfectly).
videographer from WTHR Channel 13
link to video: http://www.wthr.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5427584&flvUri=&partnerclipid=
After the hubbub, it was time to buckle down and work. I modified, painted over or added to every area of the painting.
I painted the grassy spots revealed by the snow melt and tried to make the trees more organically shaped and varied. The local bank branch is visible at the left edge of the painting as is Bob’s Gas Station in the background. The sign that’s at that slightly crooked angle reads ‘Illinois St’ and “Stop Ahead”. I also added the oncoming SUV and the cars stopped at the light because the picture really needed some sense of human activity and human scale. The headlights and brake lights are all on because I’ve always felt that seeing headlights on during the day has a surreal touch to it. As to the ambiguity about which lane the oncoming SUV is in? I’m going to chalk that up to artistic license and how swervy some drivers are.
finished painting- 'Westfield and Illinois in Winter' 16" x 20" (as seen on TV!)
The painting’s finished and I’m pretty happy with it for a quick two days of work. The important thing is- there are some pretty unique stories that came out of the process.
