A New Beginning, 2010

The

City of Portland proclamed that the 2nd and 3 rd weekend in October as the Portland Open Studios weekends and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Portland Open Studios, the City of Portland honored this organization by having a First Thursday event called the 10x10., I guess it meant 10 th anniversary in the year 2010 ?? Portland Open Studio artists were asked to submit work measuring no bigger that 10x10 to be exhibited in the City Hall during the month of March.

For some reason the image of 2010 left a fluorenscene in the synapses that no amount of Prozac could erase. I was so obsessed with 2010 that I was going to incorporate that into my painting, regardless. Perhaps I have this very personal desire to start out this year with a clean slate, free of old baggages.

I had wanted to paint something Asian, but inexplicably I reverted back to images of the Portland Westhills. I wanted to paint a cityscape at night, with a huge X'mas light that says 2010. I thought about painting downtown buildings at night with a bright marque screaming 2010.

After conferring with a few friends, I decided to forget about the Chinese motif, have to be honest with how I felt at the moment.

I chose to paint a dark, still night hushed in snow. I recall something about the darkest hour is right before dawn, so my painting is a euphemistic representation of my longing for a new beginning. I was able to show my fixation of 2010 as a mail box number.

The snow again was laid down using my Ancient Chinese Secret solution. I have developed enough confidence to use it in conjunction with ink, to create layers of gray, and that added so much to the 3 dimensional presence of the snow accumlation. By using undiluted ink around the buildings and in front of the conifers, I was able to really bring the snow out. I did the sky in a "streaky" wash to hint of inpending change, to create some motion in an otherwise still painting.

Mailbox number and box flag was done in red to add interest, and to match my chop.

2010, A New Beginning !!