Abandoned Store,
Western Tennessee
Robert Winter, 2003 

Acrylic on  Canvas Board
16" x 20"

Print:   $350
On Sheet Canvas, Unframed

Framed Original:  Not currently for sale

Artist's Notes

My then-inlaws, who lived outside Memphis, drove us around the surrounding countryside one day, and were good enough to stop the car whenever I wanted to snap a picture.

This tumbledown old store reached out and grabbed me hard by the eyeballs.

It wasn’t until ten years or so later, when I decided to paint it, that I began to get a sense of what I found so compelling about it. 

Of course, there was a quality to the light, playing between golden sun and cool leafy shade, that gave the scene a special radiance.  But beyond that, there was something about the decay itself that I found beautiful. 

The building was going back to nature—re-entering the cycle of life, if you will—and already, nature had made it far more interesting and appealing to the eye than it had ever been when it was foursquare and functional. 

This is one of a group of paintings that I later realized might be dealing with the afterlife.

 

 

© COPYRIGHT 2003 ROBERT WINTER.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.