Morning Dance

When I first moved to Indianapolis over ten years ago, I wanted to try painting some city scenes. There are four parks all in a row along Meridian Street downtown. I found a beautiful fountain with a sculpture of a woman playing cymbals at the top, and a group of people dancing around in a circle. Water ran from under the feet of the cymbal player and went over the sides into a bowl below. I thought it was wonderful. I especially liked the view of the War Memorial building right behind it.

I went early in the morning because I wanted the light to be just coming up and shining on the subject. I soon found that it only was good for ten or fifteen minutes and then the sun was too high. I went back on several successive days to capture the fifteen minutes. It was really tricky trying to capture the water. It moved too fast for me to get a real view, so I had to do my best. I wanted to have the painting be much further along than it did, but I started getting harassed by panhandlers. One of them shoved my easel over on the ground and then he slugged me. That was the end of my painting on scene downtown. Actually, though, I like the slightly unfinished look, anyway.