11x14”. Oil on Canvas. 2009.

Sedamsville is a community a few miles west of Cincinnati along the Ohio River. Its red Roman Catholic Church is one of many designed and built in the late 1800s in the Cincinnati area. I first caught sight of it from the Kentucky side, where it seemed to rise above the trees and hills like a piece of computer generated imagery. It took a bit of searching to find the actual locale and scope out a spot from which to paint it. I got the job done over two afternoons in November of 2009, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so successful at nailing the peculiar light of November in Cincinnati. Arguably October is the most romantic month for the landscapist, with the last gasps of foliage and warmth making their appearance. But November is the month of the tragedy and inevitability of imminent death and rebirth. It’s the beginning of the hard months for painters, but those months are even harder on squirrels.