I started this painting back in December, thinking that I would be able to knock it out before Christmas break. It didn’t work out that way, as it took me almost two months. A painting will take as long as it needs to take, I’m learning, and you can’t really force it. Of course, I was also sidelined by general holiday craziness and a really awesome trip abroad. (More on that in a later post)
The inspiration of this painting was the same as a lot of my recent work: a vintage photograph. I was drawn to this particular photo because it felt cinematic. It felt like a still from some forgotten classic. Of course, that doesn’t always translate into an interesting painting. It took a really long time to find that thing that makes the painting gel. In this case, it was the curtains. Once I saw that how the vertical lines of the curtains contrasted with the horizontal lines of the landscape, I knew that this painting was not destined for the failure bin.