Some paintings move slowly toward the finish line; this one took eight years. It’s based on photographs I took walking in swampy woods, with three columns of dark tree reflection and intermittent light. As I worked on it over the years, I saw that what attracted me to the composition was the underlying composition, almost a Mark Rothko-like play of squares and rectangles. What began as realism morphed into abstraction as I strengthened the light and brought the abstraction to the fore. Closer, the realism of trees, limbs, and leaves remain. It’s the distribution of the late afternoon light, floating leaves, and debris that plays with the more abstract impulse and sense of space. It may be one of my favorite paintings. Details below. Enjoy.