Litchfield is a painting of the back side of a favorite destination for our family in the summertime, The Skyview Drive-in movie theater in Litchfield, IL.
Each summer, our family makes weekend treks north from Edwardsville to watch late-run family movies. The scene is out of the 50s with not much having changed, even the prices. What strikes me as interesting are the simple colors, shapes, patterns created by the white washed buildings and fences. In the background are the grain elevators, same as many others that dot the Illinois landscape.
The white fences and screens not only present the movie being projected, but the colors of the sun and sky as it changes during the dusk hours. Many pinks and oranges against the blues of the sky and greens of the playground in front of the screen.
Litchfield shows the blockaded entrance of a repetitive metal fence with the large movie screen escaping over the top of the fence. Its a simple site as you await your entrance into the throwback attraction. Can you hear the crunch of the gravel drive under the tires as you approach? Or, the sound of 50s era music broadcasting and children playing from over the fence.
I usually paint things that move me one way or another. Color, shape, memory. Each motivate me to paint something. Litchfield has all three.