Edward Hopper And Me

This morning I delivered two paintings to a group show venue. The young man who accepted the delivery was quite taken with Angelo's, and wanted to know the inspiration for it. I told him it was a restaurant frequented by my family for a couple of generations, and he said, "You know, it reminds me of...Edward Hopper."

  Angelo's, © 2006  (click on image for larger view)

Now, if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know how frustrated I get when I hear this sort of thing, and I'm just going to vent again, so if you've already heard it you may want to stop reading now. But— HOPPER? I don't get it. Sure, we both concentrate on slice-of-life genre paintings, and his work is fine, really; I just think our styles are SO different that it's hard for me to see, and yet I get this comparison literally ALL. THE. TIME. 

I even went to a Hopper retrospective at the National Gallery a few years back, and it just confirmed my opinion. His brushwork is a lot looser than mine, and I kept looking at pieces and wondering why he didn't "finish" his strokes. I guess he had more of a French Impressionist influence than me, but I kept wishing he'd tidy things up a bit. 

End of rant.