Another early work - ENIGMATIC PRAIRIE

thermoplastic(73)

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Like my previous post "DAVID", this painting was in color, but the only photo of it that exists was taken by the Alberta photographer Nick Morant, at that time the official photographer of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the company I worked for at that time. He took several photos for a internal company publication about me.

This one shows the obvious Dali influence - the earliest influence on my work. But it also incorporates the vast landscape of the Alberta (Western Canadian) prairie and its skies. The farmer walking off into the distance - maybe trying to figure out where he parked his car, lol: I do remember distinctly that I planned on painting a prairie scene next, with a parking meter in the middle of nowhere. That never happened, just filed away in my "never realized to-do file".

ENIGMATIC PRAIRIE

^{b/w photo of acrylic on canvas painting - 1974 aprox. 20 x 28 inches}

I have no idea where these paintings went - I had a contract with a gallery in Lethbridge, Alberta at that time, and they sold quite a few of these works. Only a few were photographed, most I have no record of. Lucky I got this one from Nick Morant, they were b/w contact prints.

This painting was also in my very first solo exhibition at the Palliser Hotel in Calgary in May 1976, which was reviewed by J. Brooks Joyner in the Albertan newspaper.

Nick Morant also made a portrait of me in front of my then (and now) most successful painting, Monument to the Unborn War Hero, which for some time was the most visited painting on Fine Art America (Viewed 68,221 Times).

otto artist portrait by nick morant 007.jpg

on the bottom part, there is a glimpse of another painting, called "Marriage between Heaven and Hell" - and this is just another one of those that I have no record of. I did not want to sell it, I just brought it to the gallery for framing, when they called me and said they had a customer from Calgary looking at it, and how much do I want for it. Back in those days, mid seventies, the most my paintings sold for were $ 500.-, but I didn't want to sell it, so just to scare him off, I said OK, but no less than $ 2,500.-. Moments later, they phoned me back and said: "Sold". To get this into perspective, at that time that much money would have been about 3 months of wages for a tradesman. Apparently, this guy was some rich American oil-tycoon.