Rocks and Water
Oil on Canvas Panel
8 x 10 inches
2007
Killarney, Ontario
I hadn’t painted with my friend Tony Bianco in a year or two and it was nice to be out in the field again. We were up on the rugged coast of Northern Georgian Bay in September. It is a beautiful and barren place. There are hundreds of miles of uninhabited coastline, all rock, thousands of islands and a few fishing outposts.
The waves were crashing against the rocks and the wind was blowing. This can make it difficult to get an easel anchored, so we spent some time to find a good spot where everything would stay upright.
Once again I was overwhelmed by all that there was to paint. While looking for the right combination of trees, rock and water I was constantly distracted by the breaking of waves over the rocks. I wondered if it is possible to paint such an active scene on site. There was only one way to find out.
With a scene such as this you can only hope for divine guidance. Nothing sits still. You have to look, memorize and paint and repeat. I hade no idea if anything was working as I painted I had to just get into the painting zone and hope for the best.
When I got back to the cabin and looked at it I was amazed that it looked like an abstract painting, barely recognizable until you realized what it was then it becomes “Rocks and Water”.
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Click to enlarge