The Adolescent

The Adolescent
Oils on Canvas
1986

This is an example of Romantic Realism, the school of Art to which I myself subscribe. Generally Romantic Realists were 19th century traditional artists of the realist school. Examples: Bougereau, Lord Frederick Leighton, John William Waterhouse. Their realism went beyond showing things the way they are. They went further and showed things the way they might be and ought to be. In my painting "The Adolescent" I'm aware of the sometimes troubling period of adolescence. But I recall the glory of reaching to the future with such urgency I couldn't wait to grow up. I had dreams, desires and goals. Generally it was a happy, though for me a somewhat lonely time. This is what I attempt to project in my painting.

I had in mind when making this painting a poem by Badger Clark:

The Westerner (final stanza)

The sunrise plains are a tender haze,
And the sunset seas are gray,
But I stand here, where the bright skies blaze
Over me and the big today.
What good to me is a vague "maybe"
Or a mournful "might have been,"
For the sun wheels swift from morn to morn,
And the world began when I was born
And the world is mine to win.