This painting actually bears little resemblance to its reference photo. It’s a distant cousin from its source. I will be going outdoors again (someday, alas!) to paint in front of the motif. But until that happy day, I work from photos and alter them to suit my whimsy.
Painting landscape by whatever means is great practice for dealing with Mother Nature’s more urgent and changeable moods. But it also reminds you that art is art. In the final analysis I must persuade the spectator that this water and these clouds are like the ones he carries around in his heart.
Meanwhile, I have done this landscape before. Using the same photo, I produce different pictures. It is as though I visit the water again on a different day under different skies.
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