New Works: Huddle at the Ocean, oil on canvas

Huddle at the Ocean
Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches


This is an oil started as a demo at my St. Simons, GA art workshop last month. I worked to keep it fresh, showing the work and complexity. The land at the bottom was originally a dark strip that I reworked to make it more interesting.

I had a friend watching me paint and discuss what I was at the time. Since there was an audience, I wanted to take that bottom strip further. Brighter colors were added, some indiscriminately and at the last minute, I decided that the bottom left needed something, so water became the device to add more interest.

Most of the colors were pushed a bit further, with care to not use the same blues and purples everywhere. In the end, I didn't paint out all of the original dark land but left small bits of colors and shapes at the center-bottom of the land mass. They became the ocean side 'huddle' of whatever the mind makes those shapes to be.

I'm ready to do a much larger version of this one!