Description When looking through the old photos of my town through the years, I would always come across this one photo that just stood out as the best one out of hundreds and hundreds. One day at a local event a relative of one of the founding photographers at the turn of the century in my town who had taken that photo was selling prints of those originals that he inherited. I puchased it and had it framed for my wall. Finally last year I could not resist the temptation to use it for the bases of a painting. The paddlewheel steamboat is docked at the shore of the Mississippi River in my town of Clinton, Iowa around the turn of the century. I know the steamer was a local excursion boat that made trips up and down the river around this area while wineing and dineing the passengers in luxery, This I can tell from the other photos of the interier. I think of this scene as late Sunday afternoon. The victorian era dressed people departing the boat and the waiting and watching folks standing around are aluminated by the low afternoon sun. Everything was about dressing proper, even the bicyclist have coat and ties. The women have there long puffy sleeved dresses mostly in white except the one daring enough to wear a print. They are all quite fixated on the passengers offloading. These steamboat dockings were some event! Of the two bridges in the background the high bridge is gone but the low bridge is the current Chicago and northwestern train bridge crossing the river into Clinton. Clinton, Iowa was the sawmill capitol of the United States back then with more milionaires per capita then anywhere in the world. Most of the log rafts floated down from the north were made into lumber here.
Daniel Budde, Clinton, Iowa Member Since October 2009 Artist Statement My love of painting in oils on large canvases actually started by watching how to painting programs on tv as kid. After recording these and watching them over and over I started to paint. I continually strived to get better and I am still working at it. After finding that I really loved to paint landscaped and building i searched out commissions and continue to enjoy painting homes farms and scenes with things in them that people want. I like painting any subject except I do not paint portraits. Oils on large canvases painted with a transparent underpainting and slowly building the layers and details is my technique. I live in the Mississippi river town of Clinton, Iowa and find lots of subjects close at hand. I have painted for 40 years since 11 and enjoy it more and more as each year passes. I'm hoping the internet allows me to break out of this small town with my artwork.