after Hopper

Arguably my favorite painting, especially the play of light and dark, this is one of my early efforts to replicate a painting by one of my favorite artists, Edward Hopper. It was very hard for me, all straight lines and sharp contrasts, but I felt good about it when I finally finished and I like to look at it on my wall. Hopper called it "Summer Evening" (you can see the original at
http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=g&p=c&a=p&ID=1172), and I think it's one of his most evocative works. Like many of his, it begs the viewer to imagine the story behind it - what is going on with this couple? I love to think of what they might be saying to one another (or is it only the boy who is talking, trying to convince her to believe him when he tells her he loves her?), and wonder if they are not about to break up (I think so). The light of the porch, and the strip cast on the grass beyond, fill me with nostalgia - for what I am not sure. It looks so innocent, all pinks and blues, but they are not innocent. She is most assuredly guilty, if only of breaking the boy's heart, which she has surely done. Or perhaps he has stood her up to go drinking with his buddies, or to see another girl. It is definitely of another time, and I never understood the blue ceiling until it was explained to me as "haint blue" - designed to keep spirits away. Is there someone just inside the door, overhearing the conversation? I think yes - the younger sister of the girl on the porch, who is about to run inside and throw herself on her bed in tears over the boy in the blue shirt she left on the porch that summer evening.