#141, 6/28/19, Shuttle Launch

My final vacation painting.  I liked the fire and smoke clouds on this one, against the backdrop of a blue sky with regular clouds, the adventure that awaits, the science that had to be mastered.  Woosh!  It's taken 30+ years to see it as something amazing.  I watched the Challenger Shuttle launch on television as it occurred.  I was at the end of my maternity leave, sitting on the tufted swivel rocker nursing my first baby, Matthew.  I kept thinking perhaps they survived, perhaps they were insulated from the explosion, they couldn't have died right there as the world watched.  I was a bit scarred, and thankful that Matthew was too young to comprehend the crazy horrible things that happen in the world.

The first thing that went down on this painting was the blue sky, then the scaffolding (which I kind of made up a bit, thinking it just needed to be an "idea" of scaffolding), then the smoke clouds (of which I painted bright orange first, then the smoke over top of that), then the rocket and the shuttle, then the concrete base structure, the grassy lawn...finally, last, the fire - a color I didn't think was part of any pigment scheme (and I think I'm right, the intense fire that I have in this painted rendition doesn't compare at all to the color in the photograph, it's like a neon paint is needed).  But I deemed it complete, and will beg forgiveness to anyone who points out that the fire isn't very firey.