I absolutely love the color here, and the sharp attention to detail in the foliage. Absolutely beautiful, and I always enjoy reading your commentaries.
This acrylic piece came about after a classic Bob Ross binge during the first few weeks of New York's COVID quarantine. My boss called me weeks prior in March on the way back from a hearing in Brooklyn. He let me know that our group would be working from home indefinitely. Hours prior at Jamaica Station, Atlantic Terminal, and down Livingston Avenue, I got my first good look at the masks as I came in from Long Island. People were scuttling about nervously, "social distancing" prior to the term ever being coined by the media. The only other time in my life I'd seen New York in such disarray was 9/11. Grocery shopping later that week was the real shock to the system.
As the New York metro area grappled with the unknowns of COVID, I maintained some semblance of regularity by going on nature walks almost every day. I eventually raised the bar and began running in the summer months, shedding the "Corona chub" I had put on watching reruns of The Sopranos. One day, I stopped to admire a small cluster of birch trees among the dormant maples and oaks. I watched the path wind around the corner ahead of me, somewhat mirroring my own thoughts at the time of switching careers, leaving New York, and where I wanted to be in another five years. I snapped a photo on my iPhone and walked on.
Over the next several days, I used that photo as a reference for this painting. Slowly, I built pieces of this painting after my days in my shoe box apartment, clacking away on the laptop. It was great to maintain a positive attitude almost the entire way through; The last time I really attempted to paint was with an irascible teenage temperament. While I know it's nothing miraculous, this painting means a lot to me, and I can't help but smile every time I walk or run past this spot on the trail.
I absolutely love the color here, and the sharp attention to detail in the foliage. Absolutely beautiful, and I always enjoy reading your commentaries.
Thanks! This one might be my favorite...certainly the work that got me back into casually painting again.
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit this work under the following conditions: