Ackerman Island

Ackerman Island, 12x24 oil on canvas

I've been playing with different methods of laying down the paint lately, more smearing around and wiping out, more tonalist in color range, and the finished work above (it's so hard to get good photos with my meager set-up) is moody in much the same way the Columbia River seems to me to be at certain times of the year.  The water is wide and slow and powerful.  The light is clean and soul-piercing, the setting is timeless, and one feels somewhat insignificant in the presence of relentless Nature.  Or at least that is what I was trying to paint here.  I'd settle for moderately interesting.

I was drawn to the light coming through the trees and being reflected in the near branch of the river, and the slender sandy island, dependent on the water levels of the river, and the narrow band of trees strung out down the length of the island.  I drive past this place a dozen times a year, and I am always interested to see its changing moods.