There is a story behind this one. It started as a plein air piece as I was looking at the marsh from a 2nd floor porch. It was going to be about the grass and reflections. However, 2 years later when I came across this panel again, I kept it outand kept looking at it. I saw something that was different from the original concept of an afternoon view of the marsh at high tide. I began to see a nocturne, I night view of the marsh. The clump of grass became a distant tree. The water around the grasses became a bigger creek. my paintings very often, if not always, take on a life of their own. As I work I see things in the paint that might not be in the scene or in the original sketches (this makes it hard to be a realist painter!). I go with the flow and follow what I think the painting needs to be a good (interesting) painting. Instead of trying to force it back to what it started as, I follow the process.
I actually did do a study of the scene in the first picture on location and it came out pretty close to this view. Probably because I was focused on the tension set up between the blades of grass showing above the water in the center. But after 2 years I had forgotten what it actually looked liked and just followed what I saw in the paint
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Gouache (opaque watercolor) on watercolor paper Add , 5 x 7 matted to 8 x 10.
This framed painting sold at the Harn Museum Store.
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| This is what I had to start with . I was painting from this scene on location. |
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| This is the same view at low tide |
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| This is the original under painting that I did on location in oils I was looking at the scene at high or nearly high tide. |
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| After looking at that rough block for months in I finally saw something. I didn't go back to the photos but only worked from what I imagined I saw in the block in. I was seeing a nocturne, a moon lit marsh |
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| After several starts and stops and thinking I was done I came to this point. This is the first "finished " stage. I thought I was done. My idea is to try to keep the landscapes abstract. but I couldn't help myself. I kept refining it. I wanted to get the perspective right, I didn't want it to look like a wall with paint on it. |
So this is where I finally stopped. I left some of the original block in showing in the lower left corner. It's signed in the lower right. This one got it's first showing at the Spring Arts Fest. next week after that it will get loaded to my websites.
">This painting sold at the Artisans' Guild Gallery in Gainesville before I could get it on the websites
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