Fall Day
Memories

by

Pegeen Shean

Fall Day
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Fall Day

Fall Day Original 3”x4” Color Pencil Sketch, June 1999 (original not for sale)

One June day, Seattle had a chill in the air and a color tone typical of a fall day on the east coast, curled up on the couch in a blanket with a cup of tea, I was transported back to New York, the New York of Edward Hopper. The Chop Suey painting to be exact, the light streamed in the window leaving a beautiful yellow-orange glow on the big molding and furniture, and the smell of Chinese food permeated my senses.

Fall Day©1999 Pegeen Shean

UKRanger
UKRanger ::
May 19, 2008
As you'll know, solitude, isolation and introspection are important themes in Hopper's work, but I always feel that there is far more to the characters he depicts than meets the eye...Each painting is like a single frame of film cut from a home-made movie....a tiny glimpse of a story that will now never be told....a snapshot of time removed from its context. I discovered a colour photograph in an old junk shop once....It was of a young, well-dressed, dark-haired woman standing in a city street and gazing into a shop window. I bought it for a few pennies because it captured my imagination....Who was she? What was her name? What was she gazing at? Was she alone in the world? Was she happy or sad? Who took the photograph? I was a primary school teacher at the time and and I showed the picture to the ten year-olds in my class and asked them to discuss the picture in pairs and then I asked them each to write a story about the woman that was as opposite as possible to their partners. We had already touched on the work of Edward Hopper concerning his themes of loneliness and isolation and had worked on the idea of friendship as a subject for their own paintings (try painting the "idea" of friendship for yourself, it's not easy!). The photograph slotted between the two opposites beautifully and those wonderful kids (some from very deprived backgrounds) managed to produce some of the most inspiring little stories I've ever read! As for your painting....if I was still a teacher today, I'd be using it in exactly the same way!

MichaelStephenWills
MichaelStephenWills ::
May 27, 2008
There is lovely, sensitive characterization in this image and its artist description.

mitchellpictures
mitchellpictures ::
June 01, 2008
There is a great intensity in the woman's eyes, great work.

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