
Downtown Grand Rapids calls once again. McKay Tower, I’ve missed you.
Downtown Grand Rapids calls once again. McKay Tower, I’ve missed you.
Sometimes I’ll have a photo I love for the longest time and never paint it. I’ll keep telling myself, “It works in the photo, but you’ll never make that work as a painting.” Lately I’ve been taking those risky photos and just going for it. This is one of them, and I can’t put into words how happy this one made me feel when it was done. I was hoping to catch the feeling of that strange hazy lighting, where everything was grayed out, except for the occasional sharp lights catching a few of the edges.
This scene pulled me in because of the strong contrast between the shaded buildings and the sunlit ones. I also love the groupings of slim birch trees that are dotted throughout Monroe Center and Rosa Parks Circle. I suggested the trees ever-so-subtly in this very abstract piece.