Sunday Morning

Sunday Morning__18x24 oil on linen___available, and for the exhibit "Passing America..."

A few days ago I posted the small study for this painting, which was a "drive-by" memory while passing through Enid, Oklahoma. I used the drive-by study as my reference for this larger work. There are more details: more lights, street signs and vehicles. Again, I have given it a title with a broader appeal...this "Sunday Morning" could be ANYWHERE. We have all seen brilliant sunrises like this one, and they are even more special when you can enjoy them on the way to early services!. The study is below and to read about it, click here :
http://vvaughan.blogspot.com/2011/04/next-morning-enid.html


Next Morning-Enid___8x10 oil on linen panel___available for exhibit, "Passing America..."

April's New Moon

April's New Moon__16x20 oil on linen__for Passing America : The Great Plains, exhibit in the Fall

A few days ago I posted the location study for this painting. Click to see and read about it: http://vvaughan.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-moon-enidok.html When I do a small one that "works" for me, I enjoy using that small canvas as reference for a larger work. Since I have no photos of the scene I saw, I could only use the small canvas to refer to. This was fun and freed me up to make changes and play with the subject a little bit. Also, I gave it a new title, that makes the location more generic...just in case viewers cannot relate to Enid, OK...Now, hopefully, the scene will stir up something that others have seen before...something that brings back a good memory...

Meridian Highway

Tracks Out of Enid___8x10 oil on linen panel__for Passing America...but available!

Leaving Enid we had a spectacular sunrise, and I was able to start several canvases for "drive- by" paintings...this one is about the sky. As we drove I snapped photos between brush strokes, and this rail yard was my favorite foreground. I imagine the cars will be full of farm products in a few months, but this day things looked quiet there.
The route for this leg of my recent plains trip a few weeks ago was the Meridian Highway. We call it US 81, now, and it was EXACTLY what I'd hoped it would be: A BIG ROAD FOR FARMS! It passed through MANY towns, and unlike to towns in the Texas Panhandle Plains, these towns were ALIVE with commerce, mostly driven by agriculture. This Meridian Highway has a great history and even its own web site.

http://www.drivetheost.com/meridianhighway.html This web site says:

As the only primary north-south highway girding America’s heartland, the Meridian intersected with dozens of named trails, including the Old Spanish Trail at San Antonio; the Bankead Highway at Fort Worth; the Ozark Trails at Oklahoma City; the National Old Trails at Wichita; the Santa Fe Trail at Newton, Kansas; the Victory Highway at Salina, Kansas; the Lincoln Highway at Columbus, Nebraska; and the Yellowstone Trail, at Millbank, South Dakota.
In 1926 most of the 2,400-mile-long Meridian Road was converted into U.S. 81, an improved two-lane highway connecting Laredo to Joliette, North Dakota.

Next Morning-Enid

Next Morning-Enid___8x10 oil___available for Passing America: the Great Plains

We left Enid at sunrise the next morning and I caught this glimpse down the street near our hotel....painted it mostly from memory....my Impression...Barbara kept noticing the red bud trees in bloom, so I made sure to include a few in this scene.

I got some interesting comments from the blog, the Group-mail and facebook about yesterday's post on Enid. I was told that it was called a gathering place of "bad luck"....from before the civil war and the Trail of Tears to the dust bowl, Bonnie and Clyde, to train wrecks and tornadoes and locusts and wildfires on the prairie to A.D Greer and to being the "Bastard gateway" between 5 desserts,Texas,Oklahoma,Colorado,New Mexico and Kansas......that's a pretty lowly title to have.....and yet they have an orchid club there.! A good friend LOVED Enid, despite these things because her mom was born and raised there! ANYTHING having to do with "mom" HAS to be good!...and I have learned that there is something beautiful in EVERY place!

I chose this route through Enid, because it is along the Meridian Highway, US 81...more on that, later!