"Walking Back Home to 53 Snow Hill - North End" (24"X20", Oil on Canvas, SOLD)
This was a commission that I was asked to paint after the new resident of this address had seen my work at a show I did in the North End. She was still in the process of renovating the interior when I painted from the Copps Hill Cemetery across the street. The old wrought-iron fence around the burial ground is visible in the foreground, which was a request of the buyer. A very good call on her part, I might add, since I love such details and it allowed for the interesting perspective on the property that is seen here. It's actually a time-honored device to put something subtle in the foreground that the viewer has to visually 'climb over' to get at the actual subject of the painting. Vermeer and the other Dutch Masters used this device - a lot.
Another request she made was to put in her two daughters, even they're only 6 months old and 2 years old, respectively. She figured (and rightly) that putting them in looking older will extend the 'life' of the painting, as far as it seeming contemporary as the family ages.
She also asked for the Zakim bridge to be included, which worked out fine, since it really is visible from this perspective, and to have the time of year be early Autumn (as seen in the tree at the far middle right), since that's when they first saw the property and fell in love with it.
I enjoyed doing the painting, with all its dappled shadows on the adjacent buildings and the sidewalk, which throws the wooden structure (no vinyl siding) into sharp relief, making it the clear focus of the work. I believe it's one of the oldest (and only) wooden structures in the whole North End.
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