Elfland

This isn't a backdrop for Trader Joe's. It's yet another of my visionary landscapes set in some ideal world, hence the title, "Elfland." I have always had a yearning for a green open terrain with the right balance of forests and meadows and hills and lakes. Elves and fairies and other little glowing things live in this one. Unfortunately my photo of the original art was so bad that I had to do a lot of Photoshoppage just to make it visible enough to appear here. The original picture was taken in the light of an electronic flash, while the painting was stuck to the wall of my living room. Usually I take pictures of art using sunlight, but when this one was ready to be photographed, there wasn't any sunlight and there was snow outside. So "Elfland" lost a lot in translation. Only when I got to Virginia and saw my first view of the countryside did I realize that my ideal landscape was right there in the Shenandoah Valley and its foothills.

"Elfland" is acrylic on illlustration board, 9" x 5", January 1984.