Bank Street, Take 2

Bank Street No. 2. Oil on stretched canvas, 11x14. Sold

My brother Rand had a pretty strong reaction to my first Bank Street painting. It was not the Bank Street he remembered, not the Bank Street he saw in his mind's eye. His was a darker Bank Street, I believe, more thick with shadows and, perhaps, despair, or danger or dissolution.

He sent me an email, asking interesting questions, difficult to answer, about voice and tone and the impulse to discover.

This came on one of the days that I worked on the children's art show in Mystic. A series of pieces I received were brought by a teacher from East Lyme who had asked her students to take a photo, transmute it into black and white, and then paint from that. It's a fascinating collection of truly amazing paintings, and for anyone around here, the show opens Saturday and runs through the end of March.

I've also been thinking about a painting by a local man, Robert Hauschild. It's a big piece, painted all in black and white Rustoleum, and including about a million tones between the two. It's a view of Bank Street, I think, and it looks like something from a dream about a film noir about New London.

I've also been thinking about the next step in my painting - well, more sensing that next step, glimpsing it, nearly feeling it - and it involves shadows and darkness and I don't know what else.

All of these impulses came together in Bank Street No. 2.

I'd love to hear any comments or ideas.

Thanks for reading!