TM9413 Wetland Spring – Early Light 36×60 oil on panel

I’ve been in the studio looking at paintings on the wall drying, and stacked against the wall waiting for galleries to reopen to accept delivery of new work. It’s a conundrum. Do I continue working as if everything will resume? And how do you do that when surrounded by so much heartache? I don’t know the answer. I do know that when I looked at Wetland Spring – Early Light, I realized it might not be finished. It’s still about the season when spring and winter grasses are in a sort of equilibrium, jostling each other. Spring will eventually overcome the papery detritus of winter. but the reworked version introduced more grass, and a bit more green. Why? Maybe because living with the pandemic requires more hope (green) and more effort by many more people (the added grass). Strange. Landscapes always tell a story, including a metaphorical story.

Wetland Spring – Early Light also looks backwards to wonderful, historic Japanese screens of autumn grasses. Like life, the painting is a tapestry interweaving old and new, life and death, the world below and the world above. Details below. Nimaste.

TM9413 Wetland Spring – Early Light – detail from upper left edge with reflected cloud and grasses

TM9413 Wetland Spring – Early Light – detail from upper right

TM9413 Wetland Spring – Early Light – detail from lower center edge with reflections and grasses

TM9413 Wetland Spring – Early Light – detail from left edge with reflections and papery white winter grasses

TM9413 Wetland Spring – Early Light – detail from left of center with bright cloud reflected in shallow water, old and new emerging grasses

Earlier version of painting.

TM9413 Wetland Spring – Early Light (earlier version) 36×60

Technical painting notes: Much of the work on this painting was done with soft rubber rollers. I used the width of the roller at times, but also rolled out paint using the edge of the roller. Selective brushwork manipulated the color and added variety to the strokes.

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