Good Day Sunshine!

One of my favorite songs to wake up to in the morning is Good Day Sunshine. Paul wrote it at John’s house in Kenwood on a sunny day in late May or early June. Paul later said that he was inspired to write a song as carefree and upbeat as the Lovin’ Spoonful’s Daydream. He wanted to evoke "the same traditional, almost trad-jazz feel." He definitely succeeded, wouldn’t you agree? Interestingly, Lovin’ Spoonful songwriter John Sebastian had no idea that he and the Spoonful had inspired the song.

I tried to emulate this same carefree, upbeat feel in my painting. Notice the casual, easy-going manner in which Paul straddles his bike as he encounters the bikini-clad dark-haired girl standing before him. Both the bike and the girl reflect the sun, with both casting amorphous, blurry reflections on the rainy-soaked roadway. As the sun breaks through the stormy clouds, everything is reinvigorated. Even the reds and purples of the strawberry field emanate a vibrant, positively-charged frequency or vibration.

This painting also has a sculptural aspect. The blue Beatles spanning the horizon line are three-dimensional figures that complete the picket fence that divides the sky from the foreground.

But this is a painting that is better experienced than described. You can take in Good Day Sunshine for yourself in January at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in the downtown Fort Myers River District. It will be included with the eleven other works comprising my Beatles Collection in Palettes: Past, Present and Pursuits, a retrospective of my work that opens on Friday, January 6, 2017 with a 6:00-10:00 p.m. reception that run concurrently with Art Walk. See you there!