A Few of my Own: Go by Train

As with most people, my artistic expression began with drawing. I don’t remember a time I didn’t love to draw. And I had many teachers from an early age. But painting was foreign to me. I painted in my head, long before I painted on canvas. Since make-believe painting didn’t teach me anything about technique, I was really just creating color images, not paintings.

The images I was attracted to at the time were similar to Edward Hopper, though I don’t know if I knew of Hopper yet. I knew of Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth and other artists who depicted everyday scenes. For me, everyday scenes were cityscapes. I lived in the city. So, I didn’t contemplate organic forms. Landscapes weren’t on my mind. Though later, I was drawn to the intersection of man-made things and nature, which gave rise to an affinity for painting bridges.

To start, it was all about cityscapes. A few images tugged at me, until I finally tried my hand at painting. Go by Train is my first painting. I painted it in 1984 when I was sixteen.

I think of it more of an image than a painting. I had no idea what I was doing, except to pursue thepicture in my mind. I was afraid to use paint; unfamiliar and uncomfortable with it. Though, I still like the image and still have the painting, somewhere. I made a habit of saving my ‘firsts’.

Go by Train, oil on canvas approx. 52” x 24”