2022-12-30 Oil on Panel Branford, CT

Please click on the thumbnail to the left in order to see the full image.

I keep going back to this site to catch the moment, the really brief moment, when this stand or granite and pines is hit with a beam of fiery orange light just before the sun goes below the tree line to the West. It never lasts long enough. I can never trust my memory of it. Have painted it several times when I was lucky enough to have the right conditions. Never successfully in my view. Lots of scrape offs. On this day I went back to rework an earlier attempt. Started with scraping off a recent effort, still soft. It came to my brain to honor the prior effort by recording it’s demise (see video below). Then the flash came as I had hoped and again and I scrambled and tried, and was unsatisfied. But I stayed and watched the whole thing reverse out and grow soft. That was beautiful too. Did a radical rework. Perhaps I eased into the comfort zone of lovely reflections a bit too much. But my brain was tired and I was cold. I was happy to work with what was in front of me, letting go of the big drama.