"Metal and Wood"

This week’s featured painting is “Metal and Wood” from 2011.  It is done with oil on panel, and measures 17 x 24 inches.

This was a particularly satisfying painting for me to do – one that felt like it embodied generations of family traditions.

My father is a talented woodworker – now that he’s retired he spends most days in his large, immacutely kept workshop.

One of my grandfathers was a carpenter.

A great-grandfather was a tool maker in the furniture industry, and would have been responsible for crafting implements similar to ones in this painting.

As I worked on it, I often thought of my own view of myself – in many ways as a craftsmen like them.

Among other things, I’m sure we would recognize each others’ attachments to the tools of our trades.

They probably felt the same comfort and familiarity with their favorite hammer as I feel with my favorite palette knife.