I finished this painting yesterday, a 12″ by 36″ canvas called Moonlight Theatre. I really enjoy working on these pieces. They grow very organically, one bit leading to the next, and easily absorb my full attention making time fly by. When I started I fully intended to work on a landscape, one with a few red-roofed houses. I even started in the lower right corner with one of my typical windowless houses. I started to put my brush to the canvas for another hosue when I stopped and began to sense that there was a cityscape here instead. So it came to be.
I opted for windows and doors in this painting, something I only use on rare occasions. I normally like the anonymity that comes from windowless structures in these paintings but here there is that same sense even with the windows. They’re like the eyes and faces of a crowd of people crossing the street in a large city, aloof with little recognition of anything around them as they move. If their eyes are like windows, they’re open but you can’t see in. The same here.
I finished most of the painting before putting the M on the marquee of the theatre in the forefront of the piece. I had already decided that the marquee was the focal point of the painting and wanted it to lead to or be influenced by the title. I saw this as a city at night and felt that the word moonlight was in there somewhere. That’s when I decided on the M for the marquee. Moonlight Theatre.
Cheri came into the studio soon after I had finished and, after looking at it, asked ” Is that M your initial? Aren’t we a little self-centered?”
I hadn’t even considered that when I chose the M. It was always for Moonlight but I could see how it could look that way. I immediately thought of changing the M. Maybe an O for Orpheum, which is a common name for theatres. But I decided to hold off. I liked the M and its angles in this piece– it just seemed to fit. Besides, it was already Moonlight Theatre in my mind.
So it stays. For now, M is for Moonlight.
Redtree Times 