I found inspiration for paintings in the objects and artifacts left in the gradually-unused spaces of my childhood farmstead home. This particular composition comes from a bench located in a makeshift shop converted from a small cattle shelter. It became my Dad’s place to fix things after a bigger workshop was destroyed in a barn fire.
This collection of happenstance tools held a location of prominence on my Dad’s workbench. I never understood why, as they didn’t seem that useful, or used.
But I thought they created an elegant expression of texture, form, and subtle color. I enjoyed trying to convey the many different iterations of shadow: bold negative spaces, soft edges, and repetitive textured surfaces, all in a miniature landscape.
The one bent, paper match always made me smile, with its small, plaintive stance of dignity and whimsy…and its tiny, cast shadow.