Lower Duck Pond, Lowering Sky

"Once in a while, you do a painting that is five years ahead of you," says my friend and mentor, Ann Templeton. This little plein air oil (8x10) seems to me to be in that class, but then, I won't truly know for another five years, will I? Others may also disagree with me. But I liked this painting and its expressionistic colour instantly. I'm not sure if the day looked exactly like this, but it's what came out of the end of my arm, green sky and all.

The scan doesn't show it, but the sky and the water to the left were painted with very thick paint, which conveys the feeling of a heavy, "lowering" kind of day where it'll probably rain in the next hour or so. Other paint is applied a little less thickly, but I still wouldn't call it thin. Toward the end of the session, three hikers came through, and they gave just the sense of scale I wanted for this broad expanse of beach and the long swatch of red, dried-up rockweed along it.

"Lower Duck Pond, Lowering Sky", 8x10, oil, e.p.a.
(as always, click to enlarge!)