Morning Stream
oil 26" x 28"
"Time is holding it's breath for an instant - and for an eternity. That's what I'm after - that's what I'm trying to paint."
Andrew Wyeth
"It is love that I am seeking for,
But of a beautiful, unheard of kind
That is not in the world."
W. B. Yeats
from "A Shadowy Water"
A painting of a stream, of any moving water is tricky business. As soon as one declares for painting water the painting is lost. Instead one must take time to look at what is happening in abstracted shape on the surface, below the surface, and on the bottom - not as you assume but as you see it. The action of the water will repeat itself in a general way and the painter must seek patterns in reflection, in movement, in shadow, in light. In those patterns or what Degas called,"the repeated motif," will one begin to understand the task. This happens all before one makes a mark - but once decided, plunge in with confidence and a bit of bravura - too much care will dry the stream out.
Yes, in order to paint water one must never paint water.
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