Towards Moraine

acrylic, 40 x40

Well, it's the back end of Summer. Our company has gone home to England and our holidays are over. I feel like it's been ages since I've painted ( other than a few hours here and there ). I feel strangely lost and need to get back into a studio routine.

I started this painting after once again being inspired from a recent trip to lake Louise and Moraine. I wanted to paint Moraine with a different perspective so I got down low on the logs with the stream flowing through and the mountains in the back. I loved the photo but the painting didn't seem to work. 'If you think something is not right...then it probably isn't'. I toyed with the idea of leaving it, thinking that someone would like it....but someone was not good enough...I had to like it.

It needed a major change. Two things came to mind from a Brian Ayteo workshop I had attended. 1) 'If you think it...do it'. I couldn't let the fear of ruining it enter my head. 2) He told me I was at stage in my work where I could rely less and less on a photo.

So I took the bull by the horns and went to work with my large palette knife. It became less about the place and more about the creative process. Even though this particular scene doesn't exist, I still think it is recognizable as the mountains above Moraine lake.