TM8207 Watching the Fog Lift 12x12 oil on panel

The steep shoreline drops at low tide on the Bay of Fundy and a wealth of rock formations provide many places for tidal pools to collect. This view, from Quoddy Head State Park in Lubec, Maine  also features the rich greens and seaweed orange/bronze  colors that make a foggy gray day magnificent.

One of my favorite paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is a very small Albert Bierstadt painting of a ship going down. The painting is almost entirely neutral grays, but the vessel is bright yellow.  When I first saw that painting, I had an aha moment – that’s what gray can do! The restraint Bierstadt employed in his palette gave added drama to the moment depicted. I had his painting in mind when I started work on Watching the Fog Lift. Enjoy!