"Phantoms"

Why am I so fascinated by old graveyards? Is it because they evoke the souls that lived before us, whose earthly remains quietly molder beneath? And what of their spiritual beings? Do we feel their presence around us in these earthly surroundings?

It is the artist's privilege to imagine the unimaginable, to visualize the unseen, to give form to our hopes, our beliefs, and sometimes our fears.

Pamela C. submitted the perfect title for this painting as her entry to my "Name That Painting" contest. Sadly, though fittingly, Phantoms (as related by Pamela), is the title of a poem written some years ago by Neil Munn, a young man who died in an auto accident at the age of 16. Neil's short poem, which accompanied her entry, seemed, to the "Ghoul Board," an uncanny complement to this scary painting -- almost as if my image had been painted for it. And Phantoms, virtually the only one-word title I received out of several hundred entries, was equally to the point.

The poem itself follows:

This scary painting is now dedicated to the memory of Neil Munn.

The phantoms in this scene arrived as I painted it, and crowded in by the dozen until the painting was filled to overflowing. You can certainly see some of them in the image above. Many more await your discovery.

And what shall we make of that solitary pot of brightly colored flowers?

This scary painting employs the somewhat impressionistic technique I use frequently, particularly for my popular subjects, The Homecoming, and Ghost House.