When she was five, my first grand child enthusiastically agreed to work with me as an artist model. From the start she was great fun to work with.

The first painting idea came to me while we were fixing up a place for a wedding reception. It popped into my head when I went out to the hall with Leah to the water fountain.

I’m now designing a ten year anniversary painting, so this first one is on my mind. I was very new to the processes involved in making new work and had recently assigned myself 100 art works that I call the 2100 Project. This was the fourth art work after I braved three MX5 (car) paintings.

Because this was to be a night scene we took photos in the dusk light after a rain at the end of the block where she lived. She wore the very skirt that triggered the whole idea.

I was not flush with money and usually had a cash flow problem at month end. So I decided to recycle a painting on a storied canvas  that had seen better days. It was built in the early 1980’s by some guy who charged about $35. I brought it home atop my VW Squareback when the people who owned it gifted it to me.

After many years I painted a shepherd girl after a Bouguereau. It was nice, but not original. So I painted over it with sealer. Then I began the new painting. Each time I spent a few hours on the new concept I took photos. 

and session after session until I got to this point and stopped. It remains one of my favorite paintings of all

The point of the image was that after all the work done to get someone’s attention with city lights and signs, the simple wonders such as rain drop ripples and reflection can still do it better.