You may have seen this in earlier stages a while ago on this blog.
A scene outside my old apartment in Austin.
I had previously left it in a state that wasn't quite resolved when I was suddenly dealing with a myriad of personal/family issues and lost focus. I put it away hoping I could bring it to some resolution in the future. Right now I'm working on several night scenes of trees around Arlington. Having recent practice observing and interpreting similar artificial night lights on nature scenes gave me some confidence to give this one a final workover.
oil on panel 2 ft. high by 3 ft. long
I find that this piece is especially strong in it's NOT being quite resolved. The lack of definition and the subtle color changes that come from artificial light, especially mercury vapor street lights has a way of giving the impression that everything isn't quite right; identifiable but not exactly as it should be. That and the way that the sky is treated by the light pollution combine to make for an interesting motif and you've caught it all and brought it together in a work that one might never tire of seeing. It pulls the viewer into the work as if the tree in the foreground is near to being touchable and the silhouetted background gives the sense of depth with an economy of means that lets the viewer register what's happening but then move back forward with all those issues resolved.
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