Painting on the Ausable headwaters the end of August, my endless series of paintings of water flowing over rock. I use earth colors; raw and burnt sienna, raw and burnt umber, earth red, yellow ochre, white and black. Colors that dry to the touch in a matter of days. Modern colors are cobalt blue and oxide of chromium (a lovely earth green).
I lay out the same colors on the palette every day and begin a painting by quickly and spontaneously sketching colors and shapes in over the whole canvas. These first movements establish the basic structure and define the 'bones' of the painting.
The painting develops almost of its own accord, it is not cerebral, more of a flow of responses to what is in front of me; changing reflections of light on the moving water, the movement of the sun from East to West, changing shadows through the day.
Many paintings at the same location for days at a time is a lesson from both Monet and Cezanne. Each painting is a fresh start, individual and unique. Out of many weeks of work will emerge a few that tell the story better than others.
It took six years to learn to paint, twenty years to achieve a naïve impression that was my own.
My address here is: susquehannastudio@gmail.com
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