The Landscape of Painting

Maine: Painting of trees, house and beach

Trees and Beach | Stephen Springer Davis | 2009

So there I was, finishing up a couple of hours painting this scene in Bayside, Maine in August, when a guy walking his dog approached me. I’d had several others make nice conversation earlier, and I expected the same kind of comments from him: “That’s a nice painting.” “I have a friend who’s an artist too.” “Do you make your living as an artist?” That kind of thing. Instead he told me I couldn’t park there (by the side of the road, where people parked all week without incident). I said fine, thanks for telling me. It happens that I’m just about to pack up, so I’ll be leaving soon. I thought he’d say OK and move on, but he repeated that I couldn’t park there. I told him that I was sorry, thanks for letting me know, and that I just assumed that it was not a problem because other people are always parking there, and that if it was a problem, maybe signs should be posted, because how would anyone know that this patch of roadside, which I gathered he doesn’t own, was off-limits? Then he launched in to diatribe that began with “It’s people like you…(what, landscape painters ignoring invisible NO PARKING signs?)”.

Why am I telling you all this? Not sure, except to say that I really like this painting, am proud of it, but that I hope that my enjoyment of it won’t forever be tainted by a walk-by attack by a jackass, which it unfortunately is at the moment.

Tags: landscape painting, Maine, plein air

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 9:32 am and is filed under Current work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.