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Retired Cabdriver, Chicago
I write dog portraits and paint book reviews in Chicago, Illinois. You can see more of my work than anyone would ever want to at http://dmitrysamarov.com.
Here's what I did to pass the time between fares during my cab career.
Most of these were done at O'Hare Airport in the Taxi Staging Area in 2009.
Here's one done at the Yellow Taxi Garage, where I spent many hours, sometimes days, waiting to get a cab to drive.
You can see the whole series here: http://www.dmitrysamarov.com/gallery/taxi_pictures/index.html.
RIDEGURU
Comments
How long would you be waiting in the staging area usually? It's cool that you were able to do something so nice with that time.
Up to three hours at times. When I was working on this series I'd sometimes intentionally go during slow times so I could paint a little longer, but it was always a crapshoot. Once the line started moving, all my whole scene would disappear. I threw away a ton of paintings which didn't work out.
Wait, so you would actually be onsite drawing these the whole time? You didn't snap a pic and go home or something?
I am obviously not an artist. :) Sorry if I am being ignorant. I need to be educated.
I like working directly from life. I do illustrations, etc from photos but it's not nearly as exciting as looking with my own eyes.
I can totally see that. In fact, being there and feeling the atmosphere. that must be a huge part of the joy of painting
I'd be worried that something will change or a car would move, etc.
3 hours, wow, what a grind. Did you ever get funny looks from other drivers? Did you run into any other drivers who had interesting or novel ways of passing the time?
Kept mostly to myself. But I wrote two books about it. There are definitely some stories about other drivers in there!
You could be waiting hours, or days, for a cab... and then have to wait hours again at the airport pool... for one ride. cabbie's life is tough.
Gorgeous. Love 'em. I've always loved the cityscape drawings.. So much story. So much depth. These of yours capture so much...
Thanks!
Wow. You have some serious talent... Do you sell these works?
Thanks! Of course I sell them. I have a few of this series left. You can email me through my site if you're interested. There are also prints of a few of them, as well as other work, here: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/samarov/.
So cool!! I love this style and I really love that these are actual scenes from your everyday life.
Thank you.