Today I dropped my son off at the Missionary Training Center where he will spend a couple of weeks before heading off to Cincinnati, Ohio to serve for the next two years. Since this is our third child to "fly the coop"- it is filled with a mixture of excitement as well as nostalgia. He made a final visit to my painting studio. When he was young, he thought it was the stuff of dreams. We reminisced about him bringing all of his friends over after school one day for a play date and the time he wanted to have a sleepover there and we stayed up late into the night shooting BB guns in the back. I remember waking up in the middle of that night to his laughing in his sleep.
As I spend the evening watching old movies of his youth, I hope you can enjoy a re-posting about my thoughts on this painting from the archives of my old blog. I’ll be back to original content next week.
“Catalpa”
60 x48
I have always loved these overlooked trees. Rarely have a I ever seen this tree on the "right side of the tracks". Usually it is the tree that springs up in the poorest neighborhoods (some of which are becoming more desirable). I have seen it growing right up through the middle, and out the window of a row-house in southeast Washington, DC and in slag piles in Oakland, CA.
Unfortunately, I often see their naturally, characteristic conical crowns, truncated for overhead power lines. Their beautiful blooms, huge leaves, and the long bean pods (seen in the painting), have always drawn my attention.
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