Summer Evening
Artist: Ruthe G. Pearlman
Oil
Size in inches: 20 high by 15 wide
Price: $350.00
First Place: Two-Dimensional Art
Description: This oil painting depicts a familial scene - an African American family relaxing on the front steps of a red city building at dusk. The mood is warm and tranquil. The central focus of the painting is on a man in a white T-shirt and green pants, holding the hand of a young diapered boy to his left. While the boy looks up at the sky, the man, standing in the doorway, looks down at a couple sitting on the cement side of the stairs. The woman, wearing a red dress, looks at the sky in concentration and clasps her hands on her lap. She looks as if she might be pregnant. The man directly behind her is hunched over her shoulder and might be whispering something to her. He has on an orange and white striped shirt and bright blue pants. On the right side of the steps, another man in a peach and white shirt sits with his arm propped on his knee, and a woman in front of him in a yellow dress is cradling an infant. A dog rests at the bottom of the steps, and a boy, eating, sits below a window on a stoop by the street. A sign advertising soda hangs above his head. Two windows border the steps. In the left window, a young woman with long braided hair stands in her nightclothes, facing away from the scene, and in the right window, an older woman in gray waters two plants on a windowsill. One can tell it is night because of the clarity with which you can see the people in the windows.