The "Lamp Post" is one of my oldest canvases, and one of my mother's absolute favorite canvases.
It had it hung prominently in her house until she died.
She was an artist too and had plenty of beautiful artworks of her own, enough to fill a house, but always hung mine up all over her walls too.
She was actually the one that helped me most to become an artist.
The Lamp Post was finished in 1982, when I climbed into an old empty fountain in downtown Southampton on Long Island, NY.
At this period of time, I was so excited about being an artist and had recently started painting outside (plein air) like my artist heroes that I had looked to, from the previous century.
In 1982 I lived in East Northport, on Long Island, and worked and commuted to New York City.
I found that working in Manhattan was really wonderful and I loved going to the major art museums and to all the many galleries around town.
I found that I really loved seeing Impressionism and Post Impressionism, but wanted to also invent something really modern and original myself. I thought that some of the ideas from the previous century were just as relevant.
This was some of the factors that contributed to how I came up with the idea to paint again with "Dots" in late 1981.
Upon inspection up close the "Lamp Post" has a certain looseness and freedom of brushstrokes that makes it truly wonderful and ahead (or behind) it's time.
I painted the "Lamp Post" painting from 1979-1982 and finished it just before applying to NYU for my Masters Degree in Studio Art. When I found this interesting and beautiful "Lamp Post" in the
middle of the Southampton Town Park, and located on the other side of the street from the Parrish Art Museum, I had already come up with the idea of painting with the "Dots".
"The Lamp Post" an original "DOT" painting by JET III is an oil painting on canvas and is 34" x 42" in size and is framed.
