“I like to paint what people forget to look at,” says artist Michele Green. Along Route 9, from Delaware City to Dover - and everywhere in between – you’ll find her with easel and paints. “I want to paint Route 9 from one end to the other - it has everything I like to paint - from rural scenes to water,” she says. “It is one of the last areas in Delaware still untouched.”
So far, she has created 45 distinct and unforgettable scenes that have been exhibited in numerous galleries in the state. She began painting Route 9 scenes ten year ago. There have been – and will be - more paintings. “I’m not done,” she says. “Even when I'm not painting, I'm riding around looking for a place to paint. You go out looking for one thing and find another."
While painting this series over the past ten years, Michele has had any number of odd experiences occur out in the field. Bird droppings, for example, have landed on her work. “A red-winged blackbird did a ‘drive-by’ – not once, but twice!” she says. “I’m not saying which painting – I scraped it off and painted right over it.” Michele has also been attacked by bugs, the wind has blown her paintings over countless times, and passing trucks stir up dirt and debris. “I just leave the bugs and dirt in,” she says.
Neither she, nor her paintings are any worse for the wear. "If I wasn't so stubborn," she says, "I would have quit a long time ago.”
Reprinted from Outdoor Delaware, Spring 2007 issue, published by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
Take the Long Way Home: The Many Faces of Route 9