At the Confluence

(no longer in inventory)

This painting is 18"x20" on canvas, and she was quite illusive. I struggled with this from the beginning. I was afraid I had lost it--whatever that is that brings the inside onto the canvas. The color was wrong, everything too controlled and tight--so I sprayed a lot of water into the red and black--had to lose control. Finally, I could exhale. I hadn't lost it.

But then, I had trouble with the light. I couldn't make a commitment. I decided it had to come from the back. Okay, but how did it move through the painting? From the bottom right? Blast out the top? Where? What marks? What did the light look like? What color? What's the dynamic it creates with the dark? I worked it and worked it, and it kept taking the wrong shape, not really communicating anything to me.

Then I had a moment to look at a magazine while at the dentist's office waiting to get a temporary crown made. From the stack, a National Geographic cover revealed itself. And there were the answers to the light questions I had. On the cover was a rendering of moons colliding. Light was blasting out of the spheres. I told my dentist, "The answers to many of my painting questions come from the universe."   I borrowed the magazine. It just may inspire another painting--I mean, moons colliding? That's compelling.

I do believe I've pushed this one as far as I can--for now, anyway.