The Saint of Melrose
Saint of of Melrose is one of those lucky moments that happens sometimes when you are in your car in traffic and have your camera. The title came from the homeless guy happening to be in front of one of those Hispanic "saint stores" where you can buy your Virgin Mary statues and the like accessories. The sun was a little brighter in the moment, but I toned it down ( in the painting) on the face of the building so the viewer world look at the figure that was glowing in a "saintly light". I was struck by his confident stride, like he really had a place he needed to go.
posted by william wray at 3:21 PM
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Thanks Matt,
Generally I try and do a painting in one shot, it usually takes about 8 to 12 hours of intense work. This one took two days. Longer than most. That's just physical paining time. Getting the "big idea" is sometimes instant, other time it gestates for a time.
The best paintings flow out, others stop dead halfway through. The focus has to be there or I'll ruin it. I've ruined quite a few paintings because of my years of getting freelance work finished, no matter how tired I was. A work ethic is necessary to be a productive artist, but working in a compulsive and tired state doesn't work for oil paint. It's to easy to go wrong. Every time I do a painting I really like, it's like some kind of miracle . I often don't know how I did it and can't repeat that quality for some time.
I'd forgotten about that letter. A long time ago.
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