Reflections

 

Silverware. 

 

Such minute color changes can make all the difference in how silverware - y the utensils look.

 

 

 

 

Something Completely Different

 Painting dead animals is something I have done before: a lion with a zebra kill, a fox with a sik-sik, a leopard with an impala, a snowy owl with a sharptail.

 

This dead animal will be in a different "setting" - a place setting.

 

Each element in this painting is something I have not painted before. And why am I doing this? Once again, this is a chance for me to "stretch my brushes." 

 

In addition to painting new things I am exploring bold primary colors. 

 

Here goes.

 

 

I met this creature in person. He was my dinner.

We were in lobster season and he was plucked from the ocean by a lobsterman that morning.

In designing this painting there was a lot of editing. All extraneous elements were removed; the white bowl of fiddleheads, extra water glasses, the bread bowl, the bread plate, and the background dinners of my husband and mom.  None were essential in telling the story.

North, way north

 I've been up north. From the end of May to mid-June I've been back to Iceland (first visit 2001) and have added new destinations of Svalbard, Norway and the very northern tip of Norway from the North Cape to Tromso.

To give you a sense of the location of these far-flung lands, see the map below.

 

The scenery was spectacular and of course I was also interested in the wildlife. One of my goals was to see walrus in the wild which we did from a small boat out of Svalbard. 

As usual on my trips some fun adventures were thrown in such as snorkeling in Iceland between the North American and European continental plates. Since the water temperature was a balmy 34 degrees, I did don a dry suit!

Linda snorkeling between continental plates

The water clarity was astounding!

There was seeing the Dettifoss waterfall in Iceland from the east side after traveling on an "impassible" road and crossing a snow field (and being the only four people there,) traipsing along the cliffs of Iceland"s West Fjords to see nesting razorbills, traveling remote roads in Iceland and encountering the endearing Icelandic horses, and heading out from Norway's North Cape to the bird islands to see puffins, razorbills, gannets, and white-tailed eagles.

 

In the two day sea crossing from Iceland to Svalbard we had winds of 44 knots and seas up to 8 meters as we worked to keep ahead of a gale to the west of us. On the full day sea crossing from Svalbard to Norway the seas were bigger and the winds topped 66 knots. What great fun! Most of the areas we visited have had 24 hour sun since May 17. 

Dettifoss, Iceland, 2nd most powerful waterfall in Europe

 

You'll see paintings evolve from this trip once the ideas roll around in my mind for a bit.

Finished

 At the start of the blog posts about this painting I showed you the inspiration. Below is that photo again. When I took the photo I thought it a rather boring scene but something about the boat resonated with me. Its lines were intriguing. There was a seed for a painting.  

 

 

 

 And here is the result.

Landed

Original Oil

30" X 42"

 

                                                                             

Resuming

 It has been a while since I have posted. I did not drop off the face of the earth - merely went to the ends of it. Just returned from Iceland and Norway. En route we hit Svalbard, Norway at 78 degrees north (halfway between the northern tip of Norway and the North Pole.) At some places which we visited the sun had not set since May 17. More stories and paintings from the adventure to come but for now, back to the boat.

Though the actual boat I saw did not have planks I thought they would add character and make the outside not look like fiberglass.

 

 In the same light I've added natural wood highlights.