So I spent a month in Miami with my brother David and his girlfriend Astrid. He was kind enough to let me crash in his extra bedroom for a long time! He has a beautiful place, kind of dark for my liking since his keeps most lights off, but beautiful nonetheless. I brought my easel and paints, of course, to keep myself sane and enjoy the outdoors. Since I had no form of transportation, I just walked around his place, painting whatever struck my fancy. This one was painted from my brother's building, overlooking the highway to go to Miami Beach, I believe. It was the first one that I did in Miami and perhaps my favorite...A maintenance man from his building came by to see if I was up to no good. My guess is that some occupant noticed me and must have been scared by my intimidating presence...hehehe...
Here is a view of my brother's building from the street. Pretty cool design for a building I must say. David mentioned that Michael Jordan lives here, but I never actually saw him. I was pleased in how I simplified the scene. I did have to remove a house in front of his building. It kind of marred the view, in the painting and in real life too!
So this is the view of his building from the other side. In order to get this view properly, I had to walk a ways down some highway on the shoulder to get far enough away to see the entire building. It was a bit sketchy there because David mentioned that an encampment of sexual offenders had taken up residence a short distance away. Turns out that those offenders in the system are not allowed to live in the city of Miami within a certain distance to schools. Because there are so many schools, living on the side of the highway was the only option. The police know about this and do not disturb them too much. They do go there to kick out homeless street people because they are not allowed to mingle with the convicted sexual predators. Perhaps that is why I finished this painting in less than an hour and a half!! Miami is a place like no other.
