Water Works

  “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), It’s always our self we find in the sea.” – e.e. Cummings

At the end of summer, you can feel the inventions of fall in the air. The first day of fall with glorious weather, and I should be outside, but I am involved with a fairly large piece in the studio this week ... 48 inches wide. It is at the layering stage, and I am on about the 4th layer. It begins to take shape, but I am constantly fighting to keep it loose and abstract. It is of course for sale, as everything I do is, but I plan to hang it in our bedroom at the condo until my show at DHMC next year. I also need to get a much better photo of it, this one is very fuzzy.

The piece is a seascape, my favored métier these days. Perhaps because I am happiest when on the seaside, I am happiest when painting it. Also, it is what the Nantucket gallery wants from me.

I also reworked a painting I did earlier this year. I had been happy with the over saturation of color, and toned down the sky and water. Maybe I ruined it, I don't know, but it seemed a bit garish to me.

 I spent hours sitting on beaches this summer,looking at the water and the sky, studying each wave, different from the last, seeing how they catch the light, how they are affected by the wind; watching the horizontal patterns of the layers of waves, the sweep of it all -- just listening to the waves, the gulls, and breathing in the salty air. I took a lot of photos in Nantucket and, during Labor Day week, at the Jersey shore in Barnegat Light, and hope to get a series out of them.  

Nothing is the same as the ocean...ponds, pools, rivers, lakes, all nice, but none of them can compare.They have no energy, no soul. No excitement. I go whenever I can to the ocean for relaxation, rejuvenation, revelation, and peace. That was our last vacation in a year of many ---- Santa Fe, France, Nantucket and Barnegat Light. We were joined for half of the week by our daughter, son-in-law and grandson, and some very good friends. Then we had a few days by ourselves before saying goodbye to the ocean until next summer. I will revisit in in my studio, and in my dreams.