Day 27 of the 30/30 Challenge – Crane

With the frigid temperatures in New York today, I decided to warm things up with this painting, Crane at Sunset. I remember exactly when and where I took the photo that inspired this painting.

Seven years ago in February, I decided to visit Marlene, one of my oldest and dearest friends, down in Sarasota. Marlene and I met in French class at the University of Michigan in 1973; both of us needed a second language to get our masters degrees. While it’s always special to see Marlene, I must admit it was also nice to escape to warm weather. I left the deep freeze here and stepped off the plane in balmy temperatures a short time later. Marlene met me at the Tampa airport and whisked me off to the impressive Salvador Dali Museum, which I had last seen in its Cleveland home, and has since moved to its permanent facility. It was the start of a beautiful few days in a wonderful place with a terrific friend. What’s not to like?

A few days later, Marlene suggested that we go to the nearby beach to watch the sunset before I left. It was the last item left on my to do list, and Marlene wanted to check it off. It was a clear night and the sky was bathed in the orange glow of the sun as it disappeared into the horizon. All of a sudden, a crane magically appeared on the beach, walking right in front of us. I couldn’t believe it! I was so excited that I almost missed the photo op. But I quickly recovered, grabbed my camera, and got one shot off before the crane flew away.

I always thought this image looked like a Hallmark greeting card, almost a cliche, so I never painted it. In the spirit of the Challenge, however, I went ahead and tried something I wouldn’t have done otherwise, to see what would happen in a day.

First I painted in the bands of color before adding the crane in the foreground. My goal was to capture the essence of the backlit crane against the sunset without driving myself crazy painting every wave. I decided to stop when the painting started to feel fussy. This is a nice souvenir to have of that trip. After going through all those striking Sarasota photos, I can see why Marlene left Philly for points south.

Since I am biased and incapable of being objective about this painting, I would appreciate hearing from you. What could I have done with this to make it feel less greeting-card like? Or, maybe that’s a good thing? Let me know what you think.

Thanks. See you tomorrow.