Lake's Edge
oil on panel 9" x 12"
"A painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness, some fantasy. When you always make your meaning perfectly plain you end up boring people."
Edgar Degas
"Time is holding it's breath for an instant - and for an eternity. That is what I'm after - that's what I'm trying to paint."
Andrew Wyeth
This soft, hazy morning on a lake in Maine has been on my mind for some time. Where the winter - fallen trees and reeds get all tangled among wild rose and blueberry that grow out over the edge of the lake. The larger trees stand back on solid ground, forming a back curtain for the chaos going on along the shore. This is untouched land found up in the corners of lakes, near where the river flows in. I can glide in on my small rowboat and drop an anchor against the river current and have this place all to myself.
There is something that attracts me to the ragged and chaotic edge of things - the places without much evidence of people or machines. If you've been receiving these entries over time, you may have noticed that I don't usually paint pretty views or conventional scenes. I guess I need the tangled mess of stuff to give me the task of searching for poetry, for form or understanding amongst the space and shape and light and shadow.
I find the mystery in that elusive moment of time distilled from a couple of hours of looking to be what I'm trying to paint. Enjoy!
