My 3rd Secret ArtWork: the first year (2007?)

I think the first year I painted Secret ArtWorks was 2007. I got four (4) canvases (paper) to paint that summer. That same year, I planned to paint FreshART in Devou Park for the first time.

When I moved into a studio in Cincinnati's Pendleton Art Center in September 2006, I found out Wolfgang Ritschel and other resident artists were going over to Devou to scout out locations and work on plein air (outdoor) paintings. When I wondered why, I learned that Wolfgang was a long-time supporter of the Behringer-Crawford Museum there. And that the museum's annual fundraiser included a live auction of paintings that had been created in the park on a Saturday in September. I wanted to participate, so I started going over to the park myself to discover views that would inspire me.

This was one of those. On a sunny August day, I could see the museum in the distance through the trees. I took a lot of photographs at Devou Park that day. The first FreshART painting I donated was not of this scene; it was actually a view of the green on the fifth hole of the golf course (the one with the great view of Cincinnati's skyline). I remember being excited when it was auctioned off that night: glad for the money it raised to support Behringer-Crawford as well as for the fact someone else must have liked that view the way I do.

One of my friends calls it my "Wizard of Oz" painting:

So now you've seen three of my first 4 Secret ArtWorks. I don't know who owns any of these, so if you do, I'd love to know.

The fourth one is of Paul Brown Stadium, so I'll post it here sometime before Sunday's Bengals game and hope it will bring us some good luck.