Monday, February 27, 2012

Early morn, Morro Bay

                                             9"x12" Oil on linen panel
                                                  Sold

On the morning that I painted this scene, the fog that had blanketed the area every day for a week was not in evidence.   My friends and I fully expected it to come rolling in at any minute and deliberated whether or not to make the attempt.  We finally decided to start, but I put aside a larger canvas for the smaller one here and started sloshing on paint.  Turned out, as you can see, to be a beautiful sunny day.  It was a nice feeling to have the Weather God smile on us for a change.   The previous inland paint out was hampered by Santana winds, which are warm winds coming from the desert in a real hurry!   I wish I had a video of the umbrellas, canvases, and artists racing across the fields!   It was hilarious.  My work flopped face down near a farm wagon in dried horse droppings.  I picked it up, waited about a week, and just brushed it off.   No problem.  It had a certain air about it, but it eventually sold.   I'll show it soon, perhaps,         Mike

2 comments:

  1. Maybe that other painting could have been advertised as a multi-media work, having an added "scratch and sniff" feature to enhance the viewing experience. Heck, in the painting above, you might have let it flop face down into a nearby fishing net to achieve a similar multi-media effect. But it is already a very delightful painting as is, without any need for enhancements I suppose. I look forward to seeing the "ranch dressing" influenced painting in the future though!

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  2. (After seeing my post above, I realize now that I hit the 'publish' button after typing in the more lighthearted portion of my comments, but never getting to the actual serious comments I intended to make about the painting. As you know, Mike, from numerous occasions, that's me all over.)

    Anyway, one of the things I really love about this painting, especially apparent in the larger view, is the way the darker shades of water at the edges transition to the brighter water around the boat itself. That, along with the perfectly rendered reflection of the boat really convey that sunny day wonderfully!

    I'm also curiously impressed at how all the other "things" in back of and to the right side of the boat somehow bring the painting together nicely, yet without seeming "cluttered" at all. How does it do that, I've wondered? Perhaps the large area of water to the lower left balances it out and allows the eye's focus to be drawn up and into the main boat, with that boat then acting as an "anchor", if you will, for the viewer to consider the various other aspects of the background?

    Not sure -- all I can say is that I enjoy all your works of course, but this one really attracts me for some reason -- the colors and lots of other things I could go on and on about if I had the time (and you had the space here  ). But you know how I am -- the mathematician in me always wants to analyze everything that strikes me.

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