"SEA STORM"
oil on canvas, 12"x16"
Well, contrary to my previous entry where I stated that I would not post this image before my show I decided why wait? I mean, what if a witch swoops down one night (or a bruja if this witch is Spanish) and snatches me away and thus endeth my blogging? So considering that, I thought I'd go ahead and post it. The setting for this piece is Beaufort Inlet near where Blackbeard's flagship the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground about a mile directly offshore. The scene depicts a coastal storm we had a couple of years ago during the winter. It was one of those low pressure systems that "bomb" as they say and intensify very quickly. When the forecasters call for a "coastal storm" they are just that. You can go about 20 miles inland and it's like there's no storm at all while at the coast it'll be blowing to beat the band. That's the hold this place has over me. It's like the sea is a world unto itself and in my opinion if an artist wants to really paint it they have to live with it, live in "that world". In fact I pretty much see everything through the lens of the sea ( I also believe our beloved Andrew Wyeth did likewise, even though he did a great deal of inland subject matter, it all had a salty sea-weathered quality to it).
So if this bruja comes and steals me away to Spain where my career began, then I got this entry posted and I'll still be painting the sea.........
......and I'll even have some currency to spend at that place the bruja takes me!