Otisville Afternoon Revisited

Otisville Afternoon Revisited

Oil on canvas, 11x14

Commission

I have had the remarkable opportunity lately to repaint a few already sold paintings that collectors want afresh. It's been a thrill, and a challenge.

Paintings aren't photographs, and my paintings, relying as heavily as they do on accident, randomness and chance, are really not like photographs.

I've replicated paintings before, and it's fun. Still, mid-painting, every time, I grow uneasy. I see the inexactitude. I see the variations in color, in stroke, in light - and I worry.

Of course, I grow uneasy in the middle of pretty much every painting. There is always - always - a point where I think - this is terrible, it's a disaster, I won't be able to pull it out of the fire.

But I push the feeling back, or down, or away, and I push on, and in time, the painting becomes itself, and takes me somewhere. While these paintings have the same general feel, and the same subject matter as the first ones I painted, they are different. They take on a life of their own - and I welcome that!