"Line Drive"

       I actually painted part of this piece during a show at McBride Gallery in Annapolis.  Done purely for fun, I was able to combine my loyalty as an Oriole fan (although it has been a test of faith for the last few years), with classic trompe l’oeil techniques, which I demonstrated at the show.  If you know my work, you know that I love old advertising, especially old wooden signs.  So I took the “Bird,” the Orioles mascot, created a pose unlike the ones he is typically seen in and made up a “Wooden Bird,” as he might have been seen, say, nailed to a fence near an old scoreboard.  I aged him with cracks and dings, nail holes and rusty screws and nails, which is really the fun part of doing a painting like this one.

     The idea for the baseball “in the belly” came while I was in the drawing stages and looking for a way to add more interest to the painting, and since I would be working on it at the gallery (I rarely let anyone watch me paint, so this was a real stretch for me), I wanted it to be fun for those watching.  I really hadn’t settled on a title, which is often the case, and I tried out several with the visitors and the staff at McBride, but “Line Drive” seemed to be a favorite, so “Line Drive” it is. 

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