The full piece measures 12×36 and is acrylic on wood panel. I grabbed an extra tall and skinny board to help exaggerate the severity of the hill/building extremes. My major goal with these pieces is to capture the essence of the city’s landscape, the colors, and to bring down the detail so that while not abstract, it is a looser interpretation and impression of what I see. For me, this is a stretch, having spent most of my young painting training trying to be representational, and having to really force myself to not only simplify, but often times erase or paint over details. I let a few slip in, such as the headlights and cars heading down and lining the streets, as well as the way the sunset hit some of the windows, but mostly because the piece felt empty without acknowledging their contribution to the landscape. Maybe some day I’ll figure out how to imply them more than represent them.

I would be remised to not include a quick shout-out to one of my main inspirations, an artist by the name of Wayne Thiebaud who I have been admiring since I was about 16 years old. I find it hard not to see his paintings when I look out on my strange city.