Reflections

The working title for this painting is "Spiral." I was wondering why I named it such after the first photo edit. The creek is more of a dead superman or a snake in the grass. Spiral must be the way the clouds, with the creek, make your eyes turn in tighter and tighter circles going back to the horizon line.




This photo is working halfway through the clouds. I tried to finish them in one really long painting day, but had to break it into two days as coffee only goes so far. Having the leftover sky paint made it easy to continue straight into the creek. The reflections, not only of the clouds but of the grass divides the shapes into something more.




But reflections also keep me on my toes and out of my bed as they have to be worked into the water wet to keep them soft. For this reason I flipped the painting upside down and covered the recently painted sky to keep from spattering it with finger thumb and palm prints.




Finally I add in the water in the spartina. Most of it will be covered up by the final layer of grass, but without adding enough, you lack options to play with the negative space later. Now I'll leave it alone, actually banish it to the panel room to dry.

-jb.