This painting of soldiers in a hole behind a house in Iraq surrounded by dogs began as a black and white drawing that I hadn’t intended to do in oil, but in order to capture the ominous feel of the orange light of a dusky and sandy desert evening, I figured it made sense to use some color.

I am still figuring out how many dogs there will be and how I want the shadows to fall. In order to get this to look right I think I’ll need to push the building farther back a bit and I manned to adjust the size of the hole they’re in.

I think the main goal with the painting right now is to try and get the men and the dogs to feel like two sets of animals with the same emotions about what has happened. The hole is dug, and there is nothing in it. So they’re all disappointed and frustrated at the result of the work. The dogs, of course, did not do the work, but dogs often reap the rewards of work they didn’t do around my house. Not that I am complaining. I’m sure they’d clean up after me if they could.