These two very different images– one 9×12 and the other 17×22 were based on photos I took of a nearby cove in my hometown of Stonington, Connecticut, from vantage points mere yards away from each other. One was taken in thick fog and the other on a clear day just after sunset. I’m lucky to live in such a beautiful place with vistas that evolve daily and even hourly providing an endless supply of inspiration.
While I took my usual quota of scenic photos on my recent trip to Martinique, I also switched gears a bit and closed in on some of my favorite interiors. This one is a blend of both. The subject is our favorite spot for sipping a ti-punch and watching the sunset in Sainte Anne, Martinique. The bar is called “Otantik” and the view at sunset is the beautiful bay of Marin.
Early on, I learned that painting anything “white” should never mean squeezing out a dollop of paint from a tube of flake white, or titanium white and going to town. Some day I’ll have the courage to challenge that rule in a landscape or figurative painting (I’m sure I could pull it off in an abstract work) but not today. For now it is too much fun creating the illusion of snow using reds, blues, greens and even black. This little 9 x 12 winter scene involved the whole color wheel and was a joy to do. The hardest part was choosing the mixtures that contrasted snow with water.I get most of my ideas for graphics in the morning. After finishing this piece it occurred to me it has a bit of an argyle feel. According to Wiki, The argyle pattern is derived from the tartan of Clan Campbell, of Argyll in western Scotland but there is a County Argyle in Ireland so I guess my subconscious is telling me to get ready for the wearing of the green.
The day before yesterday, I promised an update on this image when I decided what plant to use for the ‘bottom feeders’ in my second underwater fantasy in what is so far a series of 2. I needed something small enough to display as a ‘school’ within the composition but different in some way from my pastel-tinted azalea. Ultimately, I settled on Eunonynus.
It’s always a dilemma to decide whether to present foliage on its own — whether enhanced or not — or to use it to represent other things. Both work for me but rarely do they work together.
My Stonington Garden 
