Does subject really matter? a post industrial relic and parking in Albany.

    I ask myself how much does subject matter?.  A lot of times I want something, anything with a little sun on it, and it's corresponding shadow, I want something with the potential to create a dynamic composition.  I can find most of these things in my backyard and I do sometimes. But place and subject cannot be ignored. Do you subject an important place like a state building or an historic house? or a dramatic place like a mountain, or a waterfall?  It makes me think about all the car commercials you see where the car drives by the Grand Canyon, or a lighthouse on Cape Cod. All beautiful places, but mostly these cars drive on suburban roads, to office parks and shopping malls. I believe in finding beauty where I am, places I see in my everyday life.  Even so I often agonize about what to paint, I'm beyond thinking about what will sell, because nothing sells. So I get on kicks, I've had light on white building kicks, bridge abutment kicks, tree cut kicks, and recently an intersection kick.  But still, there are times when I find places because that's where I want to be, and most often it is by myself,  and that's what I found yesterday, I was aimlessly driving around and found myself on the Thomson Rd,  and wondered just what was beyond the gated road.

     This is an old industrial dock on the Hudson River, and part of an old canal and lock complex long ago decommissioned.

      #853  Hudson River @ Thomson, NY.                      9-12-16                                      14x16

        Here is the old lock, there are overgrown roads, old bridges and I think some rails too!


        Today I went to Albany to check on a parking space for the "Parking Day" organized by the Albany Center Gallery.  This is scheduled for Friday, this week and I wanted to have a space to paint in that had some potential to work from.

      This is looking North, down Columbia St. The Albany Center Gallery is in the middle of the block.

      #854  Columbia & Broadway, Albany, NY.                 9-13-16                                   11x12

This is the space I picked out for Friday, if you are in downtown Albany between 11 and 3 stop in!