Tuesday, September 25, 2012

water

river at l'Isle sur la Sorgue (oil on board 25cm x 32cm)


This is a problem new to me - painting reflections.  The clarity of the water means that in the foreground the bottom of the river is visible, beneath the reflections on the surface.  A bit further away and the refractive index of the water means that you see the surface of the water defined by the reflections in it.  All of this, of course, changes from one moment to the next.  The complexity the constant changes mean that you have to paint freely and condense a lot of information into a few marks.  As always with these small paintings, it was made in situ in about an hour and a half.