Turtle on the River Bed

My standard way of painting is to paint for about 4 hours on several pieces and then focus on the details of one piece. I do this because I paint in layers and all the layers have to dry before I can continue painting otherwise the painting will look muddy.

When I get stuck, I leave my paintings alone. Usually this means a day or maybe a few days. I spend more time thinking about most of my painting then actually painting them. When I have resolved the painting or find the solution I am looking for, that is when I begin to paint on it again.

This painting. “Stones in the River” was started the end of 2007. I got an idea seeing a photo of sails and how the over exposed picture had so many layers. I started painting the piece and some how I was back painting pink and blues colors again – which had nothing to do with what I was trying to capture.

I put the painting away but left it out and kept staring at the piece. Most days I looked at this “beginning of a painting.”

Part of my routine, is to take a walk through the woods and one day, a boy was doing a school project in the woods. I stopped and asked him what he was doing with the camera? He said I am doing a school project taking pictures of water. He was photographing the stream. I went to the other end of the stream and started starring at the water moving over the rocks and I saw what I was looking for.

The picture I had started in 2007 got finished in 2013. The layers I had seen in the over exposed photo was like the layers of colors I was seeing in the water as the water ran over rocks, stems, branches and stuff in the clear water.

I saw what I was looking for… layers of colors and light as the sun hit the water. But, I still didn’t start painting.

Getting some new supplies to make post cards in Istanbul, I picked up some new colors I hadn’t used before.

When I got back from Istanbul – I looked at the painting and saw the solution. The right form and the design was there but I hadn’t found my focus. Now I had the focus. So what the painting is now – 6 years later, is the layers, and colors of light as water flows over rocks. I had to wait to know how to finish the piece.