Longing for the old days

Smith 9th Street “Waiting for the F Train” – 22″ x 15″ watercolor on 300# Arches cold press

My sister recently sent me this picture of our old Hitachi TV remote.  She wrote:

“Remember this remote? 

I think we had the same TV in the 80s.  I took mine to Alaska and back.  It’s gone now but I just found the remote.   Power. Mute. Channel. Volume.   That’s it.

I want that TV back.  Our remote now looks like it could launch the space shuttle and I can never figure out how to do anything with it.”

Yes, Alice.  I remember that remote.  And I too long for the old days.  I have a Smart TV.  I am an idiot and don’t know how to use it.  I was at a friend’s house with the same smart TV.  He showed The Husband and me how you take one cable, connect it to the back of the TV and the other end to your computer and voila!  You can get your computer pictures, play video games, watch Netflix, order from amazon, control the Mir space station and the Hubble telescope and who knows what else.

I can turn my TV on and off.  And sometimes change the channels.

The above painting was done over a number of months.  Now that it’s complete (maybe) I want to think about whether or not to deconstruct it like I did here and here.

Normally I would do the whole painting in a grisaille first and then add some local color. This time I thought I would switch it up a bit.  I started it as a grisaille and I then added color with the grisaille.

It’s finished.

For now.