Reflecting on Reflections

“Reflections” was begun as a demo for my Thursday night landscape painting class at The Art League of Long Island. Normally I don’t expect too much from demo paintings because my attention is distracted by trying to explain what I am doing instead of just doing it. There is a different zone that I (and I suspect most artists) get into when I am inspired to paint something from nature as opposed to when I have to try to explain every single stroke, why I chose that particular color and/or value, why am I using a knife, etc.

Aside from those distractions this was painted from a photograph that I shot earlier this year when I was painting on site at this great spot that I visit often in Bayville, NY. I am not too fond of painting from photographs anymore but the restraints of an evening landscape class make that a necessity.

That being said, there was something I liked about the way this was going about getting on the canvas. There was a looseness and freshness and I was aware of attempting to make the painting try to be mostly about the way the clouds reflected in the foreground water. There is a stillness and peace that I liked about this from the start and I tried to carry that through to the finish.

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the “Paintings and Prints” tab and then on “Available Paintings”. The price includes shipping costs.