Lovers

Just getting around to posting this small (6x8") oil on wood panel painting titled, "Lovers". This is one of the paintings I finished for the Kennedy Gallery show and is currently hanging there. The image started from photos I took in Winthrop, Mass (where I grew up) not far from where my mother currently lives near the public boat launch. I've flipped it, adjusted shapes, pushed and pulled compositional elements until I was satisfied with a design that supported this little concept. The darkest darks - lightest lights and the hardest edges are on the boat in the foreground. This is to control the journey of the viewers eye throughout this picture..it begins on that boat and eventually makes it's way to those gulls in the background. The lovers. This is achieved by placement of shapes and softening the edges on the gulls...your eye will go first to harder edges and greater contrasting areas (ie: the boat). As a narrative, you first see the empty and worn surfaces of this quiet and perhaps contemplative boat. Your eye then horse-shoes clockwise to the boat reflection - mooring - land shape - and then to the gulls. It happens in a second. It doesn't matter that the viewer recognizes all this tom-foolery....for me, on the other hand...it keeps me interested when I try to achieve something with another layer beyond picture making. Great fun for me.