In a fifty year art career a person is bound to make a mistake (just one though, HA!) And you see two wonderful paintings here. I used my wife and children as models and painted the daylight scene in the mid 80s. My father, Harold I. Hopkinson and I painted, critiqued and consulted together for many years. As I would be working on a painting and suggesting to him I was going to do this or that or add or subtract he told me more than once, “Leave it alone. Go do another painting.” Meaning I had pretty much finished that painting and to quit trying to overthink it.

After having the painting of pioneers breaking camp on a beautiful morning I had the “brainstorm” that I would improve the painting by making it a night scene. So I did it. The night scene is a nice painting but where is the nice painting of the morning scene. UNDERNEATH THE NIGHT SCENE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!

So the night scene is in my own collection and we will never see the morning scene again. Lesson learned.