Living Smaller

Completed in 2004

3.5" x 5.5"

Acrylic on Belgian linen panel

(Details)

Throughout my career, I have continually explored the theme of home.  Little white houses in the middle of nowhere make me feel peaceful and safe.  And roads or trails curving off into the distance remind me of unseen possibilities.  This is the cleanest, clearest variation on that theme that I have painted to date.  It is a graphic image with luminous hues, intriguing lines and a wide open composition.  Living Smaller is also a comment on our modern fixation on more, more, bigger, bigger.  It has three words painted in small letters in the bottom right corner.  They read, "SIMPLE  QUIET  LIFE".

I enjoy working on these Belgian linen panels, but they are demanding.  On most of my paintings, the textures and layers forgive many mistakes.  On this linen, every brushstroke shows up.  So I had to carefully plan the image out first and then the entire thing was painted with tiny detail brushes.  This kind of painting makes me squint and my eyes hurt, but the result is so bold and precise that I love to do it.  This one is a particularly cheery treat.

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