Shallow Waters

Shallow Waters

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​"Shallow Waters" - oil on canvas, 30 x 15 x .75 inches. (click on the image to purchase)

When we go down to the lowest of the low tide lines and look down into the shallow waters, there’s all the excitement of discovering a new world. Once you have entered such a world, its fascination grows and somehow you find your mind has gained a new dimension, a new perspective — and always thereafter you find yourself remember[ing] the beauty and strangeness and wonder of that world — a world that is as real, as much a part of the universe, as our own. - RACHEL CARSON

Scuba boots.

Wetsuit pants.

Fanny pack, waterproof phone pouch.

Now you're ready to go rockhounding in the Pacific Ocean as the tides roll in and out, without losing toes or limbs to the freezing water.  We go for the low tide and the ​shallow water, but the ocean here doesn't really like to be pigeon-holed as "cooperative."  Sneaker waves, sudden surges, unexpected surf - just as you reach for that egg-sized agate beneath the water. Oy!

But there is something otherworldly about standing in that unrelenting surf and trying to see and feel what is beneath you.  On our last adventure, the rocks and beach were covered in jellyfish parts - glistening, undulating, sparkling like the agates we were hunting.  I poked a lot of parts - making sure they weren't treasures.  I grabbed a lot of parts rolling in the waves.  There was mist, fog, frigid wind and an angry ocean that day.  The two of us, standing in that madness, filling our packs with the largest agates we have yet seen, all alone on that endless, moody beach - a new dimension of beauty and strangeness and wonder.

​Did I rest my face on a large fish?  No, I did not.  But I would have if I could have.  :)

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About the art:  the AI bot and I have had a wildly good time trying to make mermaids.  It doesn't get mermaids well, nor centaurs nor griffins.  There are all manner of weirdly wrong results.  But sometimes you get a sweet moment between a  lady and a fish, like this one.  Painted alla prima in two stages:  the underpainting and initial sketch in the first go, and the subsequent layers all in a second go after letting the first one dry thoroughly.  The inspiration image had a very limited color palette, with background and characters barely distinguishable from one another.  I tried to maintain the integrity of that effect, while also pulling both lady and fish forward with some sculpting highlights.  The final touches were the dripping paint from mouth of the fish and the highlight in the surface below the lady.  Again, the temptation to go back in and overly define everything was hard to resist, but I wanted to keep the pale, fleshy, wateriness of the piece intact.  So I walked away.  

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