Last Painting of the Year (I think)

I've worked on this painting off and on for a few weeks. I think it's 16x20, painted over some other work I decided didn't merit saving for posterity. It is taken from another one of Toni's photos. She doesn't have any others, so I'll have to find some other subject matter for the next one. I'm still interested in painting crowds, and I may try repeating in oil the ones I did last winter in watercolor. Somehow it never seems quite so interesting to paint familiar, contemporary scenes. I think that's because our idea of great art was done by the old masters. We forget that what looks so old-fashioned and romantic to us was actually contemporary when it was painted. Even though Toni's pictures are fairly recent, the fact that they were taken in Chili somehow makes them more enchanting.

I have to get over that..........