"Walking the Back Streets in the Afternoon - Rome" (16"X12", Oil on Canvas, SOLD)
Every corner you turn and every side street you wander down in Rome offers another beautiful view that begs to be photographed or painted. In this case, both. I had turned of the main road to escape the crowds headed for the Colosseum and came upon this little scene here. The motorcycles and scoters parked on the left, the two guys talking in the middle of the street (one holding his tiny Italian scooter helmet and looking right at us, becoming a focus of the painting in the process) and the tourists walking by on the right all provide humanity. The beautiful duomo, which is actually one of a pair of domed churches flanking the Vittorio Emmanuel monument, shows itself down this tiny street. The beautiful building on the right is like so many others in Rome - beautiful yet unremarkable, with its arched entrances and lovely proportions. It shows itself in the angled dying light which reflects over to the other impressive building on the left. The curved building at the end of the street is another fine example of the efforts made by architects and builders over the centuries to provide everyday, usable buildings that nonetheless excite the eye and invite inspiration.
The theme of this painting is the embarrassment of riches that surrounds each of us almost all the time and that we barely look up to see. Anything can be made into a work of art, or re-interpreted by the eye of the artist to make the unremarkable truly remarkable.
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