Hilltop Steak House - "Wish You Were Here" Roadside Retro Sign Painting

'Wish You Were Here"

Hilltop Steak House

Saugus, Massachusetts

6 x 4 inches

acrylic on watercolor paper

Happy New Year! Hard to believe that 2015 is here.....but I am definitely ready to start a fresh new year.

And I am starting this year like I did 2014 with the Fun-A-Day Project. The idea of this project  - which is being done by people all over the world - is to pick something creative that you consider fun to do each day during the month of January. Some people write, take pictures, sculpt, make collages out of hair from the shower drain, etc....you get the idea! The project is talked about more here.

Boston has it's own Fun-A-Day group, and once the project is over, we have a group exhibition showcasing our work. It is always a lot of fun to see what kind of projects people have come up with!

Last year I did a 3x3-inch painting of something from my kitchen. This year, my project is a Postcard Painting-A-Day "Wish You Were Here" - a little retro roadtrip visiting some of my favorite signs and structures. These a quick little acrylic paintings  - some of these signs I have painted before, many I will paint in the future. Besides being a fun project, these little paintings also help me workout ideas and compositions for some bigger paintings that I will work on through out the year.

Also during the month of January, Leslie Saeta is doing one of her 30 Day Painting Challenges, so these painting will be posted to her blog as well.

So the Hilltop is my first subject of the year. Love the iconic huge cactus sign! Unfortunately the restaurant closed last year, the cactus still stands, but who know for how long?! I have done a few other small paintings of this sign, but I can't help but think that I may need to do a really big one some time soon.