The Fading Days Of Summer

                                                       One Last Ride To The Old Schoolhouse
                                                       An original acrylic painting, on gesso-primed panel
                                                        10" X 18", unframed

                                                          ( click on image to enlarge )

     The summer is already in it's waning days, and we wonder again why the time seems
to fly by so much faster with each passing year.  Some of us may have accomplished all
that we had planned to do in these warm  "carefree", fun days, but many of us are starting
to realize that many of our dreams and hopes of summer are fading sadly away, as our
attention focuses on preparations for students going back to school.  James Dent is
quoted as saying that "A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is
blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken."  But chores can't be
avoided forever, and now duty is calling, however unwelcome and loud the sound of
the school-bells may be.  It's time to dust off the books and try to prepare our young
people for whatever disasters are going to be handed to them by our willfully ignorant,
political leaders.

     The painting hearkens back to a time when life seemed much simpler in retrospect.
I have done several paintings of this historic, one-room schoolhouse, in the tall-grass
prairie of Kansas.   I would say these paintings are mostly mood pieces, trying to
capture the feeling of the isolation and loneliness of the little building's windswept,
hilltop setting.  However, in this version, I decided to give more structure to the
composition, by adding the figurative element in the lower left, which creates an
informal balance with the building in the upper right of the painting.

     Perhaps this version also lends more of a story element to the painting, as a
viewer might wonder whether the rider is an older rancher, making a nostalgic
visit back to the school where he learned his ABC's.

     For those who may be interested in having a print of this painting but who
require it to fit a more standard size frame, I believe the central portion of the
painting works fairly well as a print.  As I show below, very little of the mood is lost
in this 8" X 10" print of the painting.