"Sun and Shadow in New Orleans"

Postcard ... Via Merion 

Off to New Orleans for a brief excursion via Google Maps for the Virtual Paint out, I was drawn to these colorful shadows on Bourbon Street.

If this scene seems a bit cheery, considering all the hardship that New Orleans has suffered in the past several years, it isn't that I don't appreciate that sadness. I have to admit to looking for the sunny side of life if possible when I paint. I figure if I'm going to spend several hours painting something I might as well experience pleasure in imagining or remembering the scene depicted. Painting for me is a way to spend a few hours in solitary pursuit of a pleasant memory and trying to bring that experience to others.

The one exception to that in recent years was my painting of the nursery school in Saito Japan. It was very hard to paint this, as the city was completely destroyed in the tsunami.