This is an oblique aerial view overlooking Brush Creek and the Wornall Street bridge leading into the Country Club Plaza. Planned by developer J. C. Nichols in 1922 on a 55-acre site, the Country Club Plaza opened in 1923. It features the Moorish Revival architectural style of Seville, Spain. It is a favorite shopping and dining destination for locals and visitors to Kansas City.

This piece is special to me, as this is the view from the hotel room my wife and I stayed in the night before moving into our new home. We awoke to a light rain beginning to yield to a crisp and cool autumn day. I stepped out onto our balcony and took a number of photos that I used as reference material for this studio painting.

In this work, I wanted to capture the feeling of the quickly changing weather patterns The water, streets, and background echo the colors of the sky. The brick and terra cotta of the buildings reflect the early morning with a few lights from the buildings and reflections suggesting the beginning of activity in this new day. The title of the work is inspired by a lyric from the Cat Stevens song, “Morning Has Broken.”

This artwork is underpainted in transparent red oxide, with a palette of Payne’s grey, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson, cadmium red medium, cadmium yellow light, Naples yellow, ivory black, and titanium white. The green shades are all mixed from among these colors.

This original oil painting measures 48” tall by 36” wide. It is painted on a cradled birch panel. It sells in a custom-built, 2.5”-deep natural maple frame. Free shipping in the U.S.