Acrylic on cavas
24" x 36"
1998
 
This water feature occupied the central courtyard of the first four buildings Microsoft Corporation built in Redmond. In 2001, about 3 years after I made this painting, I transferred to a team working in building 1, which is out of view behind the painter. As a manager overseeing the Service Pack releases of Microsoft's primary database product, I consumed many a relaxing summer lunch in this garden.
 
Microsoft's campus redesign, begun in 2018, demolished all four of these buildings. They're being replaced with much larger and taller structures that will be set further back. The lake itself, named after Microsoft's co-founder, has been spared the wrecking ball, or so I'm told. It will be interesting to see, once the new campus opens in 2022, which of the trees adjoining the lake were also preserved.
 
This was only the second acrylic landscape painting I attempted. While I like the level of detail I was able to achieve on the bark of the tree in the foreground and in the pond's reflection, I had yet to apply what I'd learned in high school about the mechanics of perspective drawing. I also had yet to learn about the upward-darkening of a blue sky or about how to veriegate an expanse of grass.