It's Hanging There

Well, actually a big gust of wind whipped through the garage last week and this pastel of Peter Strauss Ranch flew off the wall. I took it as a sign that the big 20x24 paintings of the olden days(2003) ought to be retired from my daily view. Oh, but I miss this one already.

I'll always remember Karl Dempwolf looking at it and just giving me a "harrumph." He wasn't very impressed. "You can do better . . . much better."

"Shapes, Dave, shapes," Karl would say. "Paint it . . . don't record it."

I know Karl is right, but as he would say about one of his masterpieces, "it's a nice little painting." It reminds me of an "aha!" moment when I actually felt like I captured light. Springtime, lupines, soft diffused light. I remember that late afternoon with a breeze moving the paper around.

It's a bit contrived, but I've got to put it somewhere. I guess I'll leave it here. It looked so forlorn in the pastel bone pile.