Buffalo skyline At Paint The Town (edited)

I had an unusual opportunity to paint from the top floor of the iconic Electric Building in Buffalo before the adaptive reuse was completed. The top floor was designed as the corporate offfices of the electric company and was paneled with carved and detailed wood, elegant doors were disguised in the walls and great windows opened in every direction from the empty round space. The first long distance transmission of DC electricity was sent from Niagara Falls to this building.

The views extended for miles in every direction to Canada, Grand Island, and the Falls as well as the challenge of looking down onto streets in a radial grid designed by Frederick Olmsted for Buffalo. I chose a window facing southwest through the First Ward, past the grain elevators to the wind turbines in Lackawanna and beyond to further shores of Lake Erie. The dome on the right is the Buffalo Sabres ice arena.

Perspectives were altered by looking down, and the clarity of the air made distant details easy to see. Truly, it would be a pleasure to access those windows again! 

"Paint the Town" is an annual fundraiser for the Buffalo History Museum and I have donated paintings there for several years; the generous patrons have bid the prices high enough to make my work valuable to their endowments. I chose to give them this skyline painting because patrons are familiar with these buildings and the location, I think it should bring them a good price. 

I am asked for donations frequently and carefully choose organizations that I wish to support and which will benefit most from a work I am willing to part with. Artists are asked to subsidize clubs or donate too often, to support all sorts of endeavors and fundraisers but their work may be auctioned or sold for low amounts and without benefit or value to the artist. The public is often unaware of the difference between a print and an original painting. For these reasons, I investigate requests and try to match my life interests with their needs and the quality of the invent. Years ago I was told by a potential client 'I won a $350 painting for $40!”.  Shame. 

Be generous. Support your local museums! Paint The Town event is May 17 this year.

'Where I Like To Paint, Buffalo '. 12x24 oil 

edited:

The painting was placed in the Live Auction and was one of the last to be featured, so it earned the museum a great price. I was thrilled to see it front and center for the event, and more thrilled to watch the bidding. The new owner invited me to see it in his home, he was excited to have won it.