Cincinnati is a city of hills and valleys and I lived there from 1966 to 1971. I was learning to weave and I was also painting. After a year or so, we moved across town into a two-bedroom duplex. There was a painting class one evening a week at the nearby library. The instructor encouraged us to paint on location around town, and I tried it a few times.

I had been painting in oils when I lived on the east side, but I started to use acrylics in the class because my oil paintings often looked muddy when I finally finished them. This is painted on the smooth side of Masonite board.

I believe this painting is oil because when I look closely at the painting, I notice that the buildings appear to be drawn in with the brush. When I did painting at home, I did careful drawing of structures and items in a still life, and the edges would have been sharper.

This landscape didn’t get muddy from reworking it because it was done on site.

As I recall, this was along Harrison Avenue and I set up my easel on an empty corner across the road from the scene. Looking at the painting today, I find it hard to believe I painted it plein aire.

Of course this was before I had children, and times were different.