"Illuminate"
oil on canvas
20" x 30"
So, I'll have ten paintings on display at West Baden Springs Hotel in West Baden, Indiana for the next couple months. The Brown County Art Guild organized the exhibit, which will feature all sorts of beautiful paintings from picture painters across Indiana.
I needed a departure from what I had been painting, so my wife and I made a trip to West Baden in search of subject matter. I hadn't originally planned on taking part in the show, but the opportunity to paint a subject I'd typically avoid was welcomed. Truth is, I'm not good at "pretty" and that's all there is at this umpteenth eighth wonder. I ended up picking out some of the less obvious facets of the hotel for my focus. It was a fun three-evening-adventure at the easel...and so long as I'm painting fifty pictures to every one I sell, I'll keep on believing it should always be more about the fun than the fruit.
Above all else, this short deviation allowed for an impromptu outing to one of the most fabulous buildings in the state, lots of working past 2 am on school nights, several more paintings that I'll probably die with, and a lot of reminiscing on time well spent at the very place I was painting. My wife and I visited West Baden before the renovation was complete. It was a windows-down day-date when we were both teenagers...I was a smaller version of myself and my wife was nearly as beautiful as she is today. A few years later, I proposed to her at the same place...thank God she said yes.
I don't think I believe in luck, but I did get lucky once...even the losers, ya know? I can chalk a lot of good fortune up to stubbornness and naivety, but Brittany is as close to a miracle as I'll ever be.
