"Low Tide"

Acrylic  6"x8"  Canvas Board 

Finally, a new painting posted on my blog. It’s been a long time, but the time hasn’t been wasted. For the past couple of months, I’ve been trying to paint a little bit every day. In spite of how difficult that is, I’m convinced it’s the single most important discipline I can pursue if I have any hope of growing as an artist. I won’t post every painting that results from this renewed effort. My focus is on learning and, if one out of every few paintings is worth posting, I’ll be excited to share my progress.

So, here’s one from my trip to Maine last summer. It’s an island near Stonington, photographed in the clear, morning light as we passed by on our way to spend the day on Isle au Haut. When I look at this painting, I can’t help daydreaming about spending a week or two camping and painting on this little island, watching the tides and lobster boats come and go. I’m including the value sketch I did to work out the lights and darks before starting the painting. Getting the values right in a painting is infinitely more important than getting the colors exactly right. Not sure I achieved that but, hey, that's something I'm working on, too.