Portland’s Broadway circa 1940

Out of the dark and into the light.  This could be a clever line to mimic the subject of my latest painting but I’m actually talking about myself here.  I haven’t posted in over two months.  Between this painting, home remodeling and general summer fun - I haven’t made the proper effort to share the written word.   For this I apologize.   I’ve neglected all (seven) of my fans and stand before you stripped bare and filled with remorse.  That's a metaphor - nobody wants that image.

With the expectation of total forgiveness I present to you – “Portland’s Broadway circa 1940.” It may look small here, but this commissioned piece  is 50”x 56’.  It’s now hanging on a large wall in a beautiful Salem hillside home with views stretching as far as the eye can see.  The idea being, when you’re not looking out at the spectacular Willamette Valley – you can look “in” at this very contrasting view.   

Opportunity and process:   I was tasked with creating the centerpiece of a living room.  We discussed various subject matters and came up with a downtown Portland theme.  Virtually every Oregonian has some connection or recollection to downtown Portland.  In fact one of the homeowners mother grew up here, her family owning a jewelry store on Broadway.  We had a mid-project meeting to which I came away with a solid understanding of what they wanted and I went to work.  

Combining history and nostalgia with a scene that virtually every visitor will connect with was my mission.  I used color and a bit of expressionism to create the energy of Portland’s theater district as it might have looked some seventy years ago.  I wanted to give life to a world that most of us only know from black and white photography.  Saturday night during the golden age of cinema brought an energy to Portland's Broadway.  My goal was to capture that energy and bring contrast to the current television smart phone age that replaced it. 

What you cannot see is the custom frame.  I actually make the frame part of the painting in all my work.  For this piece I added images of movie posters from 1939-1940 to further reinforce the scene and time period.  It also added another element of interest.

  

It was a doozy of a project but a whole lot of fun.   The research alone was worth the mission.   I hope you like it.   And I’m back…