Not everyone would see the beauty in many backyards, but David Ohlerking does.
Ohlerking painted a friend’s backyard, complete with a 1968 Mustang (with fairy stickers on the back), and he made the good in the scene plainly visible. The Nevada artist finds the piece interesting for other reasons.
“When I did the initial sketch, I loved it so much that I asked my teacher if I could leave it at that,” recalls Ohlerking. “He said, ‘No, but there’s a way to finish it and stay just as fresh with the paint.’ So I waited until I didn’t love it anymore and went back into it carelessly. One of Diebenkorn’s rules about painting has to do with not valuing the initial, pretty state. This is kinda like that.”
