Inspiration:

I am fascinated with elements of mankind in contrast or complementing nature. Some of my paintings imply the presence of man against a landscape, in other work the human figure and drama are more explicit.

Concept:

This painting adresses the graphic contrast found in one of my favorite subjects, abandoned machinery. The concept presents sort of memories of a Steinbeck novel, a reminder people driven from the good land and abandoning all but what they could pack into a Model T and strike out for California.

Execution:

My expeditions to find painting subjects frequently lead me into the pastures and farm land surrounding the metropolitan area of Dallas and Ft. Worth Texas where I live. Sitting beside the back roads, sometimes in a tree shaded corner of a field, I find abandoned farming equipment and old pickups. Many of these are now being salvaged by being dragged out to the roadside where they are offered for sale as rustic mementos and "decorator items". As with wild life painiting, I prefer to try to depict these "creatures" in their "natural habitat". I found this tractor in a "machinery graveyard"; not really a junk yard - each piece of equipment was reverently given its own space and none had "for sale" on their headstone.

,p>This composition depends as much on the sky and the flow of drifiting Texas winter rain clouds as it does on the tractor. The bright harsh winter sun of the southwestern world gives the shadows and temperature of the environment.

As I frequently do, I used many layers of acrylic, thick and thin, repainting elements until the "right look" came through. Using a restricted pallette, I focused on the fundamentals: value, shape, edges, color to create a painting that is very simple yet visually powerful.