Monday, September 26, 2011

Pumpkin Patch, 8x10


Halloween Capitol of the World.....Anoka, Minnesota.  Every year there is a large celebration of everything spooky, especially if it is orange and black.  It all culminates in the 'Pumpkin Bowl', the big 'be a hero' football game of the year.

I know this because it is where I grew up, parading through the streets with all the other kids for the big Halloween parade.  We all had costumes, usually handmade.  One year we were twenty foot glow worms, another a snowman and even an oversize Sad Sack.  We did it all for the candy and the free movie tickets.

Last Wednesday Gillian and I went to the local patch and did a painting (below).  When finished I found I liked the design but felt I could do more with it and so revisited the pumpkins and did the one above.  Pretty much the same scene and coloration but with amped up color and chunkier strokes.

Some may prefer the original but this all speaks to doing a series of paintings on a theme to see what can happen.  I'm going out again sometime in the next week with a larger canvas for one more try.  Stay tuned.


3 comments:

  1. Wow!! Excellent paintings. The second looks great.

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  2. I can't say why, but I like the original better.....both are nice tho.....It must be fun for you to paint where you grew up.

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  3. 20 foot glow worm sounds like an intriguing costume. I like the saturation of the second image. The "chunky strokes" remind me of pumpkin guts.

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