I just finished working on a commission for an old friend from Camp Timanous. The commission was for a painting of Beginners Beach. It is always a challenge to paint a scene of a place you love. The process is still the same making sketches, looking at photos and the one I decided on had my old dog Bandit in the water but it was not the right time of day. I wanted it to be during morning dips. This is a place I could walk through blind folded. When I'm stressed out I often close my eyes take a breath and the visual of the sun coming through the pine trees over the canoe dock. This vision will fill me with a quiet calmness. I've been a "Polar Bear" at Beginners for at least 16 summers never missing a morning. There are some cold mornings in Maine too! I always dive, a "professional" shallow dive of course because the water is no more than 4 ft deep. When I surface and stand up I'd see the tall pine trees with the sun coming through the branches and know that I'm ready for my day. It is my reset button. In the afternoon when the sun is going down there is a golden light that hits the top of the pines that tower over the shore line of the cove and bring about thoughts of the Hudson River Painters of the 1900s. So of course, I had no trouble coming up with a composition but as I finished the first batik there seemed to be something not right. So I did another. and then another. I think that when you love a place so much it's sometimes hard to paint. I could keep going until I've painted a thousand painting of beginner’s beach but sometimes you just have to let it go. and though my students would yell at me. BE DONE!
Paintings
- Polar Bears Zen
- Polar Bears Sunrise Kingdom
- Polar Bears You Dive I'll Jump
