Recently, I’ve done two paintings that feature fire, passion and sadness. The first, “Quell Dommage” was capturing Notre Dame in Paris burning. That incident captured the world headlines and the sadness was palpable as this historic architecture with it’s iconic steeple burnt and fell apart. It will be rebuilt.

The second painting, “Temple of Time Ablaze” started as a plein air painting of the Temple of Time in Coral Springs FL. It was an project designed to help the community heal from the MS Douglas school shooting in Parkland. The building was a place where visitors could leave messages of grief and sorrow. It was designed to be burnt down in a ceremonial fire.

When I first got there to paint and visited the Temple, I was overwhelmed by the grief, sadness and passion of the raw emotions. I really could not even paint as I could not clear my head of impact of this experience. I did do quick sketch and took some photo reference shots.

When I painted it back in the studio, I tried to capture in the ground leading up to the tempe the passion, rage, anger that was evident. Also tried to capture in the flames the hopes expressed within the temple.

This temple will not be rebuilt, but hopefully it helps rebuild the lives of suffering community while the memory of the victims of MSD will be forever in our hearts.