TM8920 Evanescence 36×36 oil on panel

The waves keep coming, but each moment is uniquely fleeting. I thought about that transience when I started this painting. It haunted every decision. How to suggest an eternally short-lived recurrence, in all its glorious spontaneity. I decided the key was to premise the painting on chance – let the monoprint techniques I love control the first gestural layer, then follow wherever the marks might lead. The idea for the spindrift came out of a skip in the way the paint came off the roller, and the simple foreground, with its textured feel of sand, came from the desire to not impose, to let the suggestion be.  With such a simple foreground, I wanted the movement and sense of evaporation to be the real subject. Everything comes and goes – nothing more. Details below. Enjoy.

TM8920 Evanescence – detail from upper right horizon showing use of solvents to manipulate paint in base layer, followed by glazes and thinly layered brushwork

TM8920 Evanescence – detail from center