Wednesday, January 4, 2017

DC TRANSIT SNOW SWEEPER MAKES SWEET DREAMS

Happy New Year!  I've always wanted to paint a  streetcar snow sweeper and this one is broken down as the white stuff melts.
"DC Transit Snow Sweeper" oil on canvas ( 14" x 24") 2016

I love this Washington, D.C. intersection where New York Avenue, 13th St. and H Street meet. The building in the right background is now the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

I have a friend named Mike who grew up in DC and he says about that building,
"when I was a kid, it was the Town Theatre where I would occasionally go to see a movie.  It's one of those old buildings city planners targeted for demolition and replacement before mayor-for-life Barry got his historic building preservation legislation passed."

This intersection is close to where I frequently bought art supplies at the former Utrecht Linens at 13th & I st NW. When Utrecht opened in Baltimore I quit traveling to DC so much. But I have fond memories of that neighborhood. Fourteenth St. was still in business with a few "men's entertainment arcades." There was a bus station that  later had to make way for the Verizon Center construction. And parking all day was $7 on a gravel lot over on I street. From there I could walk to the mall for some great art exhibitions or just hang around to watch the life on the streets of NW DC. I was particularly fond of the area around the National Portrait Gallery. There were still small shops, stereo and liquor stores that were in their last days of existence. Those drowsy days of DC were indeed being swept away.