Monday, April 20, 2015

1569 Flooded Land


This image is a detail of the right centre of the painting. One uses as big a brush as you can when outside. That prevents you from getting to caught up in the detail which you don't need anyway. This male red winged blackbird was showing off for prospective mates. It is only three jabs of paint but the mind fills in the imperfections.
The swamp just to the north of the studio is a provincially significant wetland. I totally agree. When one stands in a swamp for a couple of hours, you are exposed to just a bit that the wetland has to offer. The chorus of spring frogs played out like a huge church choir. Sometimes every frog in the entire choir would compete to be heard. Then for some unknown reason they would fall almost silent within the space of a few seconds. After a few minutes one voice would struggle up again and the choir would be at full volume again. Red winged blackbirds, ducks, geese and even a mute swan were also in the congregation. A pair of sand hill cranes also flew by as I painted.
The wetland is a rich place indeed. It is not flooded land as the name might suggest. Flooded land might not have any value which is not the case for a wetland. There are three creatures deliberately included in this painting. Remember that I was using a fairly large brush so they are just stabs of colour. I resisted the temptation to make those stabs better in the studio...
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/flooded-land-phil-chadwick.html
http://fineartamerica.com/blogs/1569-flooded-land.html

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