Boston Public Gardens 1981 oil on linen 24x30" $5000
I painted the Public Garden because I wasn’t used to seeing such beautiful, landscaped parks in urban settings.
Unlike that bitterly cold winter, the summer of 1981 was lovely. People in Boston love to complain about the weather, but I grew up east of Cleveland and Lake Erie. My hometown of Greenville got its name because it was always raining and overcast, and therefore the plants were always green… Greenville got three or four sunny days a month. Boston had three or four sunny days a week! Glorious sunshine on fascinating old architecture! I wasn’t used to that. I celebrated the beauty of this new city. I chose to paint the Public Garden, a very popular, picturesque landscape. The logistics were a pain – parking and tickets cost me until it hurt. I was a country bumpkin… I had no idea what “No Standing” meant, so, since the spot was empty, I parked my car there. A fifty-dollar ticket rewarded my ignorance and was difficult on a poor seminarian who was doing a painting in a bustling city. But no one cares about the tickets it cost when they are looking at a painting… so I struggled through the issues and painted every beautiful afternoon that I could.
