Shades of Night Descending (2023)
Oil on Canvas
36” x 36”
For this painting, I repurposed another painting that was tossed to the roadside. It was some floral pattern or other which I was equally tempted to leave where I found it. But, since this is a town with a short shrift of art supplies (meaning that there are no stores whatsoever, and so I have taken up the habit of scavenging for my subsistence). Without much planning aforethought, my impulse was to first coat the canvas with trowels of an acrylic base from which to build my oils. Once that dried, I first made a gradation of dark to light not heeding the temptation to work from either extreme. Layer was built upon layer, from a sun boiling in flaming hues to the sands shining like gold bouillon under the last vestiges of daylight. All in all, the painting pulled itself together via a force of spirit so that I do not remember much of what I did to achieve my finished work (dismal or otherwise).
Paul Maher Jr. 