Here's a painting I'm working on for Shazza's Sister Show. I am using her wonderful photography for inspiration. The sky is a little trippy but I like it.
This is definitely the landscape of my childhood as we were surrounded by the salt marsh. We used to call it the meadows. I used to play in it, sinking into the oozy mud while I hunted for terrapins and salamanders. When I was a pre-teen, I used to ride a painted Chincoteague pony down the sandy road to the Seaview docks. During the summer I set my crab traps over the Patcong Creek bridge and waited for my prey. As I got a bit older the sandy marsh roads led to "smoking" spots. When the marsh froze you could walk on the footpaths away from civilization. Small fires were built. Beer cans dropped by underage drinkers littered the ground.
It wasn't until I moved away that I realized the beauty of the salt marsh. I am glad that it is now protected. The osprey have returned. The place holds all sorts of memories for me. Some pleasant, some terrifying. I remember the smell of low tide.
As I look at it on my monitor it looks different than the painting. I added some new purple to the sky and now I realize that I should not have. I was trying to go for complementary color drama. I have to clean up a few stray marks here and there.
