Monday, October 23, 2017

Oct 23, Two Harbors Creek

There are a few more paintings from that first weekend in October yet, and this was the very last one. I had painted that crazy bright tree one (see last post) because I'd needed a bit of a break from the water struggle, in which I was attempting to teach myself how to paint the illusion of moving water, flowing down Dave's creek across the rocks. After frustrating myself a whole bunch of time, I sketched one more version looking back up the creek past the sauna towards the roots of an old cedar.  Then as I turned to look at it again to paint, I said to myself, "Why the hell am I not just painting THE WATER?  That's what I want to paint!" So I ignored my sketch on the panel and didn't bother erasing it~ I just looked hard at the rocks and water and started sketching with my brush, putting in the darks and lights and not thinking about what I was doing.
Wow, is that hard! We are so used to stifling ourselves, translating our thoughts for others- its that "invisible audience" I still remember hearing about in 5th grade, those hidden observers in our soul for whom we are constantly performing.  So painting this splash of water was a revelation for me.
I am pretty happy with it.
Whew!

Sauna Creek, 8x10 acrylic on wood
$160 click here to purchase!

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