Another Painting

   

  "Solitude" 6x6 oil on canvasboard  $200 SOLD

      Again, I apologize for the sub-par photograph of this piece, the reflected light coming off the frame and the varnish on the painting  make it seem a little washed out in my opinion ,but I still love this piece and I wanted to share it with you . I wish you could see it in person.
      I painted this scene over the summer from a photograph taken by my wife Jenn while we were spending some time in Savannah, Georgia a few years ago.We had just finished a delicious seafood dinner at the "Chart House" restaurant when we decided to get a drink and take a stroll down river. It was a beautiful  spring night , that time of the evening after the sun has just set ,leaving a radiant orange-pink glow on the horizon. The stars are just coming out, the lights are just coming on, and everything seems to be immersed in that orange-pink phosphorescence.We walked on down the river path, past all the tourists, vendors,and  various shops until it seemed we were all alone in our nocturnal quarry. Suddenly,we came upon two tugboats that were moored for the evening. We sat down on one of the many public benches anchored along the walk and just gazed dreamingly out at the river . I asked my wife to take a few photos before the afterglow subsided. It was a truly magic moment.

        Its moments like these that I didn't often pay attention  to before the explosion that killed my buddy, and severed my arms, very  nearly killing me. And I remember being  in the back of a humvee, racing to the Combat Support Hospital (21stCSH) in Iraq,begging Sgt Alvini not to let me die .I had lost a lot of blood and I could feel myself slipping away. I prayed to God like never before ,asking him to let me live, to get me back to my wife and kids. But I was dying.
    I later learned that when I arrived at the CSH they were going to pronounce me DOA , but for the efforts of some tenacious doctor, I was resuscitated. When  I awoke I was informed that my work partner and buddy ,Spc Paul J Beuche was dead. I resolved from  that moment on that I would do what ever I could to recover quickly and to live my life to its fullest potential. Paul was very young,only 19, and he had his whole life ahead of him. I wasnt about to squander mine with self pity. It would dishonor him to do so.
     So now I look at life from a whole new perspective, and I seek to freeze those everyday magic moments in time through  painting, and if I can evoke some small emotional response in someone through art, then I have accomplished something to me that is very worthwhile.