Thursday, August 20, 2009

Fish flashback

"



It's a flashback painting because I'm back to my early representational phase for this painting. I chose the fish as I had taken some photos of him (her?) in the fish tank at the interpretive centre in Mallorytown, St Lawrence Islands National Park. The park is sponsoring a call to artists and I'll submit this when done. Needs some more work on the background and then some glazing to settle everything in.

I am reminded how relaxing painting like this can be, no abstraction, no open ended soul searching angst! Just paint a nice picture. Like baking a cake you've baked many times before. You know what to do, how to do it and how it should turn out. Maybe a little bit of manipulation of brush stroke and composition but it's all brain work. Heart and soul take a back seat.

Nice little fish, "Pumpkinseed" or sunfish as we called it when I was a kid. We'd catch these little guys and toss them back in, too small and too prickly to eat.

2 comments:

Silverbear said...

Now THIS is a sun fish! I don't know how much more you can add to this. I like the flesh tones and that "fishy" stare. But I love the background and the varietion in shading from the bottom to the top of the canvas. There is such a dramatic contrast between the fish and the water - foreground/background contrast - very clean and clear presentation - and such an expressive fish!!!

Anonymous said...

yes, it must feel relaxing to do something like this after working on abstractions; but no harm in that, we all need a little relaxation now and then! best of luck to you submitting.