‘Corn Field’

This was a big 30″ X 40″ acrylic on canvas that I donated several years ago to The Works for their ‘Hat’s Off’ gala. I am always inspired by our beautiful Ohio countryside and this was a scene that I drove past frequently. One sunny day I just couldn’t resist stopping to take a photo reference.

This was one of those paintings that I worked many weeks and months to finally get to a place that I felt conveyed the feeling of that scene. It was a struggle for me and I actually at one point gessoed over a large part of the painting that I had already spent a multitude of hours working on. I finally realized I couldn’t get it to work, so out came the gesso. I had to rethink how to proceed to achieve the desired outcome. It actually sat in a corner of my studio for quite some time before I got up the gumption to jump back into it.

In the end I was happy with the result. I later entered it into a juried show at the Zanesville Art Museum and it won an award. It was a great lesson for me to learn that patience and perseverance can pay off.