James Pond

There is a deceptively simple peace that comes from looking out over this pond.
Peaceful in that air and land and wind and water come together seamlessly
and you can melt away the burdens of the world in one rustling of a leaf.
Deceptive in that there is so much going on in those elements
that your calmly gazing self might be the only still thing around.

All manner of wildlife around you are in constant motion.
The water never stops.
The leaves and clouds dance around you like fairies.
And the chorus of birds and bugs and lapping waves are gentle background to it all.

But my favorite part of this corner of the planet is that it changes.
I have spent many weeks here and no two reference photos are the same.
It was part of the challenge in choosing to paint this spot.
Which season? Which sky? Which time of day?
The blue of that water can be fifty different hues in one given hour.
The constantly revolving collection of cormorants on that single rock alone can make one’s brushes spin.

To settle on all those choices is to make everything…come to a …stop.

And then, once stopped, to try and give each element
an accurate rendering and slowly build the layers of background
melting into middle distance and finally detailed foreground
and tease each strand together and hope that they vibrate as a whole
and at least give the hint that all is in motion.

For the Morse Family