TM8510 Meditation on a Looking Glass 30×60 oil on panel

What is the draw of looking at reflections in the water? Is it trying to compare what’s above the water line with the seemingly similar image on the water’s surface? Or is it the inconsistencies that begin to emerge the longer you look? Where is that color or form coming from? Are the distortions from a breeze, or a fish under the water? The longer you look, the more fanciful it all becomes, until you start to realize that you are Alice, entering a strange world with an insignificant map and no sense of direction. Everything is possible. Every maybe can be answered with a yes! Now the fun begins……

Meditation on a Looking Glass might be the culmination of my years of looking at the pond, or it might be the beginning of the real series. Like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, I’m being forced to reconsider what is real and what is my imagination, and where the two can happily co-exist. Details below. Enjoy.

TM8510 Meditation on a Looking Glass – detail from lower center

TM8510 Meditation on a Looking Glass – detail from center showing reflected sky and trees (also showing use of scraping into wet paint, monoprint techniques, re-rolling of drips and spatters)

TM8510 Meditation on a Looking glass – detail from right of center top

TM8510 Meditation on a Looking Glass – detail from lower left with ripples and reflected trees

Technical painting notes: I’ve been using my soft rubber roller to re-roll over wet passages of paint in the first layer. This softens the edges of the drips and marks, and can create more subtle afterimages. Multiple glazes, and working with only watercolor brushes, results in an enamel-like finish.