Vision Outside Fellini's

This is only my second posting to this blog. I wanted to include a painting that had hung in the Mobile Art Association Fall Juried Exhibition, which we just took down on Halloween Day. My painting won the Alabama Art Supply Merchandise Award ($100), which I was very pleased with since this is the first art award I have ever won. Here is a photo of the painting, which I titled "Vision Outside Fellini's".

There is, of course, a story behind this painting. My husband and I had just eaten lunch at one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants on Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans called Fellini's. This restaurant used to project old Fellini movies on their walls before Katrina. As we exited the restaurant to the street we saw a woman walking with her pitbull along the sidewalk. After they passed us we turned around and noticed that the dog had a pet chicken riding in his backpack! This was such an absurd sight, I thought I just had to go home and paint it. I had no camera, but the image was pretty well registered in my mind. When I got back to Mobile, I checked out some books from the library about pitbulls and also researched the web for images of dogs walking, doggie backpacks, chickens, etc. - and even found a webpage that had a photo of the Fellini's restaurant sign. I then composed this painting. I had great fun in composing and painting the details on the dog's face and feet. The judge who juried the show had some constructive criticism on this painting, mainly regarding the background (realism vs. illusion?); but I decided to learn from the painting and not try to adjust it - especially since I had already varnished and sealed the painting. (The difficulty with the background reinforces my desire to learn more from my plein air painting so I'll be more comfortable painting grass, trees, architectural details, etc.) This is acrylic on canvas, 24" x 36".