grande madame: city as self

20” x 24”
Acrylic on wood panel
$375

This painting began in Vancouver in November 2013. I wanted to capture the essence of a dreary November day in the PNW. Hence, the long shadows and reflections in puddles in the early afternoon when the darkness starts to seep into the commute. The reflections distort the figures of the usual people I see on my way home from work. A businesswoman with a briefcase, a sex trade worker, a child and a dog out for a walk with a parent, even one of the pigeons that scavenge along Main St.

I always thought it lacked some vital point of interest, although the layering of red paint really stood out to me. Inevitably, it got stacked with some other old canvases and wood panels until I could figure out what to do with it. I packed it Victoria in 2018 and it gathered dust for a few years.

Last week (2021), I unearthed the painting to use as a reference. I wanted to see what size of canvas would work best for the line drawing I was projecting on a wall. And then the idea came to use the old panel itself as the background. Just like that, it was finished.