Road To The Sky 16X 20" 2008Another painting from my jaunt down the Douglas Lake Road 10 years ago. Not sure about this one.... Maybe a better photo that a painting? The only challenging part was beating the bank at the left into some semblance of order. It always amazes me that the simplest things are the most difficult--like in life, I guess.
Farm in Delta 16 X 20" 2008I took this shot on the back way to Tsawwassen, riding along the dike--feeling very Dutch! The sun had just started to break through after a morning of rain. I had spent the weekend with Dan and Erin at their cabin on Harrison Lake (see posts from last fall), and had stayed the night with Cousin Nancy and her family. Nancy has a great sense of navigation, and it was she who tipped me off to the possibility of a bike trail around the Hwy 91/ Hwy 10 interchange. So I saved myself some stress and got some cool pix in, thanks to her!
I'm pretty happy with this little piece, especially because I painted the sky in one straight go, the tones are true, and the colour is subtly creative. There is a lot more to the composition than meets the eye at first glance, too. I had to make very few corrections overall, and had some really nifty things take place, just by letting them happen. Notice the two shallow diagonals on the left (one in the sky and one in the field). Also notice the compression formed by the curves in the bottom of the clouds and the curves of the brambles.... It seems to have the sense of depth I was looking for, while still respecting the flatness of the picture plane. Depth is created here by overlapping planes and by diagonal lines once again. The pale blues of the barns push them back into space, but the warm, strong adjacent touches bring them back into plane again. So there is a tension between depth and flatness, although maybe depth finally wins out.
Also, some psychology going on, almost behind my back. Hint: I've always wanted to own land. Forever out of reach, I guess.
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