About the Painting: “Rush Hour”
Size: 30″ x 40″ Acrylic on Canvas.
This painting is the about the “Road” in “Road/Signs”. The road images are about driving, seeing, landscape, and the common experience we all have behind the wheel. This particular subject is a view that I had daily as I drove home from my studio. It is located in Orange, California. The tile is ironic in the fact that I went this way to avoid rush hour on the LA Freeways (actually the Orange County freeways, but who can tell the difference?)
“Beach Motel” noted previously was my first “Sign” and since this was my first “Road” it was an experiment in progress. My previous series called “Nightscapes” involved much airbrushing and I brought that into this work. The sky is all airbrush in the style of my previous work however the landscape and cars are done in a flatter style which I kept throughout the series. The eyes form the transitions in my work rather than using blending. I did this more to save time than as an artistic judgement. I loved the sky so much in this work I painted several other canvases with the same sky.
I wanted the work to be soft, and quiet. It is how I felt after a day of painting. Driving home I reflected on the day and the progress I was making at the time. I didn’t realize at the time how much change would come because of this series.
September 15th, 2006 at 2:08 am
Cool, very peaceful. looks like new mexico sunsets.
April 24th, 2007 at 1:31 am
Hy, i wanted to tell you that you’re paintings are very beautifull especially this one which is my favourite.
I’m a french student and i’ve read in english classe jack kerouack’s “On the road”.
I’ve a work to do on it : i’ve to choose a painting and explain how this painting could illustrate the book.
I choose to pick you’re painting, that’s why i would like some information such as the date you painted it…
If you have read the book, it would be really nice from you to give me some info which could help me to link you’re painting to the book.
Thank you
Hugo
April 24th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Hello Hugo,
The painting was created in 2002. I haven’t read the book but I will put it on my reading list.
Thank you.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
[…] In the US there was a time when streets of cities and highways were infested with neon signs. They were the trademark of Hollywood and the cinema industry. Today there are little vestiges of those old cinemas and those old signs, but there is a rural highway that transverses the entire country where landmarks of this bygone era still remain, and an artist who still loves to record and remember these bygone days through his paintings is Anthony Ross, who specializes in sign painting. […]