Title: untitled

 Titles often come later to me, much time often passes before I have a word or a phrase that reflects well on a painting, something that I think hits the nail on the head as was the case with this painting. I was thinking of calling it “the watchtower” but then I remembered Jehovah’s Witnesses standing on street corners in Montreal giving away a magazine called the watchtower and I didn’t really like or want that direct association to religion but then excitedly I remembered the Bob Dylan song (made famous by Jimi Hendrix) called “all along the watchtower” which I know, has Old Testament references but is poetically ambiguous in a way only Dylan can do … and then I thought ok, how about “under the watchtower”? I like that, because, as someone who appreciates ambiguity or open endedness, it suggests, to me anyway, a place of quiet observation, where life unfolds in the shadow of something or someone watching. To my eye, it evokes a subtle tension between the seen and the unseen, between freedom and surveillance, between shelter and scrutiny. Look at the image and one can see how the feeling or sense of that title reflect well the spirit of this little painting., or, it could just be a painting of cyclists, commuters, making their way past a charming little hamlet, know what I’m saying’?

24” x 30”. Oil on canvas.