Maine Glory

Maine Glory, Oil on canvas.   This is a painting inspired by a few photo I took in Maine at my high school friend Jeff's cabin in Meddybemps, Maine.  We had a sort of mini high school reunion with about five of us.  We had a great time catching up, visiting the area, and enjoying the lake. Here I imagined Jeff "glorying" in the serenity of the lakeside scene.  I really like how the the pine trees came out - the burnt umber sienna underpainting was key - but I especially like how the water came out. It really looks lively and wet - the key was the underpainting of greens and reds, translucent on a white canvas, before the blues, greens, and pinks of the water overpainting.  When using the translucent quality of oil paint you really have only one attempt at it so there's an element of luck and intuition involved.