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Train Station
This train station below
was a great project. It is a single canvas that measures 6 feet high by
26 feet long.
The painting is the old ACL station that stood in downtown St. Petersburg.
I used old postcards from the Historical Museum to get the detail of the
Building. It is painted in circa 1913. The train station itself was torn
down but the building that was the warehouse for the train station was not.
In the mid eighties that building was completely rebuilt brick by brick
and is now an AmSouth Bank and other businesses. The painting is still on
display behind the teller line in the AmSouth Bank located at 260 1st Avenue
South, St. Petersburg.
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There is an interesting
story about this painting.
When I was asked to do this piece there was not enough time to finish it before
the grand opening of the building.
The opening was a black tie affair that was also a fund raiser for a children's
charity.
I suggested that I attend the opening and paint on the piece as part of the evening's entertainment. At that time the painting was about three quarters done.
So there I was at the opening painting on the canvas. I was working on one of cars when one of the guests asked me if I would paint his wife's birthday in the license plate as a tag number.
For once I was quick
on my feet. "Sure", I said and quickly spotted an empty jar.
"For $100.00 charity contribution."
The couple laughed but ponied up the cash and I painted in her birth date
as a tag number.
Well the word spread quickly and we raised over five hundred dollars on tag numbers alone. Some people threw money in the jar and I let them paint on the piece. Then the President of the then bank gave three hundred to have his wife's birth date on the train. All in all it was good idea.