Final

January 11th, 2014
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt
Essex, MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in

It was a mild but wet day, so much “heavy mist” (or “rain” as most people refer to it) that my paint, liberally imbued with “mist” (i.e., water) would not stick to the board, because the board too was wet and oil and water make a career out of not mixing.

Plus when I got there, the overall impression the fields and marsh gave me was “ick.” All but the filthiest layer of snow had melted, all there was to see was dirty wet snow, dead grass and melting ice.

However, once I started trying to paint it, I started to see so much beauty in all of it – no doubt thanks to the stark contrast between it and the sludgefest that was puking it’s way into being on my canvas. This was clearly going to be one of those paintings where I just have to slog and slog through ugly, trusting in the unlikely possibility that in due course I would come out on the other side (beauty.) I stopped here, due to being cold and wet, when the colors were matched but no details (grasses, birdhouse) or highlights had been laid in. I’ll try to finish it off, one way or another, this afternoon.

p.s: If you look closely, you’ll see my easel is actively, literally falling apart! My teacher has had the same easel for 30 years, I’m lucky if mine last a year. I have a replacement that will hopefully work, I just have to build a shelf into it for my palette before I can use it.