This is the last painting of Cape May in my series of five miniatures for the Cider Painter show in Wilkes-Barre. When I scanned the piece for the first time, by mistake I had my scanner set to greyscale. But when I looked at the preview, I could tell even without color that the piece had emotional impact and the water looking even more "ocean-like" than it did in the color image. I think this speaks of how well I was trained in value (seeing and representing images in light and dark alone). I don't think I'd be doing so well in color if I did not have that foundation. I believe I will continue with my seascapes and begin trying landscape paintings of our fall foilage. I think being freed of having to make these "look like something" as you do with portraiture-my approach is strictly seeing abstract forms of color and design and painting them. Also, I realized all the training I've had using filbert bristle brushes is perfectly suited to water-the "sparkle" in the water happens by dragging undiluted paint over the white surface of the bristol board with a bristle brush. The brush skips spots and lets the white show through. Likewise with the clouds, it catches and drags pure pigment over previously worked spots which looks like the edges of clouds.
One friend told me maybe because these come so easily that this may be my calling as an artist. I'd like to say I agree with that. Art isn't necessarily easy, but it should be a natural and joyful expression of who we are as people, and further (for me anyway), an act of worship, a loving gesture. Painting pure color is definitely that for me.
