Original Oil Paintings by Earl Mott

"Remembering the Glory"

Oil on canvas

24" x 36"

Remembering the Glory is a painting of part of a train graveyard that once existed at Camden, Texas. Engine number 5, featured in this painting, was the last one left. I photographed it in 1973 and painted it several times in the 1970s. It has been restored and is now on public display at Livingston, Texas. In doing this painting, I wanted to tell a story of a grandfather returning with his grandson to visit the train on which the grandfather had once worked. I and a friend, John Charles McAdams III, was photographed for this story-painting. I later changed my mind and added an older man looking at the engine in a moment of reflection. The older man becomes the father, I become the son, and the boy the grandson and great-grandson. Two other men are also painted in the distance, all of whom I photographed at an antique car show. These older men are remembering the glory from actual experience; my "grandson" and I from stories and imagination.