after Turkey Creek , right end
Oil on masonite, "After Turkey Creek". This is a large painting, 80" x 29", photographed in 3 overlapping pieces for viewing. Above is the right-hand 35 inches or so. Here are links to the center, and left-hand views:
The left 15-18 inches is pretty faithful to an internet photo of Turkey Creek in Palm Bay, Florida, of a point in the winding creek very familiar to people walking the boardwalk in the background on the left. The remaining vast length of painting is pretty much made up, or a composite of about a dozen photos I took. Or at least that was the intent but it just sort of evolved.
I painted this because I had been wanting to do a creek scene since moving to a place with a creek in my back yard. I've gotten into documenting (photographing) all the creatures and plants and so when I heard that the new Palm Bay library (to be built at Turkey Creek) might want some art to display, it seemed like a perfect project.
I painted this over a period of about 3 months, a very hard time for me because I was practically an invalid due to a mysterious muscle/exercise disorder. As someone who was always very active and quite successful as a runner, it was of great consolation to have this painting to occupy my spare time with. Although my studio is up a flight of stairs, I could haul myself up there to paint. I had the masonite panel actually screwed to the wall, and I rolled around on a chair with wheels.
Of course the most fun was inserting all the creatures. Some are difficult to impossible to see in a photo, and some are hard to see even on the painting. It's become somewhat of a game for people to try and find them all.
Email me at bpigon@bellsouth.net with your list and I'll tell you what you missed. There are 26 (I think) living creatures, 1 dead one. Multiples of the same species in the same group or doing the same thing count only as one.
