End of a Proustian Summer, 2009

Winfield, Missouri (a Mississippi Riverfront town)

As 2010 nears (today is the day before New Year’s Eve) my mind drifts back to an end-of-summer odyssey I commenced on August 3rd.  I had not been to my college town since 1976, and thought I should spend a few days on a road trip to Northeast Missouri to see if any Proustian ghosts still lingered.  They did.  At 6:59 a.m. I took several photos of this abandoned antique store in Winfield, Missouri on Hwy 79 north of St. Louis.  It is a Mississippi Riverfront town with its main drag lined with defunct businesses.  The sun was coming up bright, it was 63 degrees and very quiet, and I couldn’t stop musing over this relic of a store that once hummed with commerce.  The watercolor is not yet complete, but hopefully I’ll have it ready to hang by the first week of the New Year.

St. Louis Jazz Club

Jazz Club in St. Louis near the Fox Theater

Here is a nearly completed watercolor I’ve been working on of a Jazz club, now defunct, in the heart of St. Louis near the renovated Fox Theater.  While visiting family for Christmas, I put in some time trying to finish this up.  I began it last summer (2009) and hope to complete it in January 2010 as my first 2010 painting to bring out.