AFTER THE SEVENTH RACE

Davis W. Morton / 1998 / oil on canvas / 24 x 34 inches

     If someone in Baltimore or Washington, DC wanted to go to the race track, Pimlico or Laurel is normally where they would go.  This painting combines images from the two.

     When fate presents us with an excellent opportunity, some people are too timid to take a chance that should be taken.  At the other end of the gambling spectrum, other people completely waste their talents and their energy trying to control the uncontrollable.  Then they blame their mistakes on fate.  Gambling, good and bad, runs the course between these two extremes and any painting I do that deals with gambling actually deals with our bizarre relationship with providence or chance.

     The men in this painting have bet on every race.  After The Seventh Race, they know their day at the track has been unsuccessful. The man in the pink shirt is blaming fate and seems to be saying, “There must be some mistake.”   Being realistic, the two men in the center are trying to find out where they went wrong and the man on the end has lost it all. 

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©2006

Comments and Original Art by Davis W. Morton (#167)