Truth

(300) Truth
private collection
6 x 8, oil
If I incorporate last post's exercise into this painting, the words describing this young man would be: modest, respectful, wise-beyond-his-years, kind, humble, and unassuming--a lot of words for such a small painting? I find that I most enjoy painting figures who are engaged in an activity, or in some way interacting with their surroundings. Painting a relaxed, natural pose allows me to focus on capturing a gesture, a likeness, a fleeting truth, a moment in time. And to me, painting a figure from this angle creates some degree of mystery, inviting the viewer to ponder such questions as: who is this young man? what are his thoughts, hopes, dreams, wishes as he looks out onto that sparkling, vast body of water?

“To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be"...Rachel Carson