Sea Drama

Sea Drama was inspired by a collection of photos from a vacation in Nova Scotia some years ago. The rugged but beautiful topography of Nova Scotia has endless scenes like this. Brawny headlands frame the water as the daily drama goes on from sunrise to sundown.

One evening my wife and I watched a scene very much like this from a restaurant window except that we could see Minke whales playing in the distant water. My indication of gulls near the horizon is a weak attempt to reflect the possibility that whales might be down below.

Sea Drama, Acrylic on canvas board, 5"x7", $25 (Unframed)

Rockface

Abstract painting allows a level of freedom that can be hard to deal with if one is coming from another, tighter style. Today’s post illustrates that well for me.

Rockface was done in two sessions. At first the underlying cooler colors (blue, violet, grey and black) were laid down in a rough manner. The idea was just to get the canvas covered. Once this was dry, the warmer (yellow, red, and orange) paints were applied thickly with different sized knives. Lightly grazing the paint-loaded knife across the previous dry layer is a perfect method to reveal unpredictable textures and shapes. While working the second layer two things happened. First, craggy shapes began to appear almost as if on their own. Second, I could feel the temptation to keep working the paint growing with each stroke! As any artist knows, the latter is the surest enemy of beautiful vibrant color. Fortunately, I was able to stop before ending up with a lot of mud on the canvas.

Rockface, Acrylic on canvas board, 18”X24”, $350 (Unframed)