The Last Summer Day
56x36"
Acrylic and water on raw canvas.
Price includes shipping.
Framing available. Price and additional shipping upon request
For the last 14 years I've attended an end-of-summer camping trip that I easily call my favorite time of the year, but no matter how much fun is had a simple truth remains: When the sun rises after the last day, summer is over and 365 days stand between me and another weekend of bliss. Year after year I find myself driving home under a cascade of dread.
I recall childhood memories of summer slipping away, enjoying a melancholic final Sunday before waking up, putting on a uniform and heading back to school far too early in the morning. There is perhaps nothing more sobering for a pre-teen than realizing your summer is about to end and you've got homework, rules and indoors ahead.
The Last Summer Day is meant to evoke those feelings and memories of our youth while also introducing a more fundamental sense of loss. The figures, possibly youths but ambiguous in age, stare off into the distance with a barrier between them and the viewer. They seem to be at a watering hole of some kind, though the landscape is abstracted and immaterial. The sun seems to melt into the pool below. While the title could be "the last day of summer", I chose something that opens the possibility of a more dramatic interpretation; the last summer day ever.