Jeffrey Dunne's beach sunrise photo inspired my newest oil painting
/I'm a morning person. If I sleep past nine o'clock I feel I've 'lost' a whole day. Fortunately, I have a Facebook friend in Florida who is a 'real deal' morning person. Jeffrey Dunne gets up before daybreak every single day of the year to be on the beach at dawn and photograph the arrival of the morning. He shoots hundreds of images, then returns home to edit the work. Afterward he puts three to twelve of his best shots on FB before eight am. WOW! He generously asks his friends to use, or copy the ones they like or want.
I want to show you one he recently posted:
Photographed by Jeffrey Dunne
When I saw this picture come across my screen I knew I had to paint it. Well, attempt to paint it. See, I don't think we can ever recreate the magnitude of God's creations, but we can try to do something creative ourselves with the inspiration.
The Creative Center where my studio is located, is planning an art show called 'Visual Spirituality'. Bam... if this wasn't visual spirituality, I don't know what is! So I began looking for a canvas that would fit. I decided that the size needed to be large for greater impact, so I settled on a 24" x 48" presentation.
So here's my lay-in, block-in or first pass...
Here is my first round - the "lay in", I call it.
It's okay, but you can see those three 'sun' shapes are very distracting! They were in the photo and looked good there. I liked the sky above it and the start of the dark water.
So I had to wait for this to dry, then...
Second pass as I refine this painting.
Ok... more sky, the shrimp boat, water was lightened up, but not defined. That SUN... it's still there... back to the studio and more work. Actually a lot more work is needed on the sky besides just the sun.
Finally, I'm calling it done:
'Dawning of a New Day" is my completed, signed painting.
I don't know... now that I've posted it here... I believe the 'sun area' is going to need a little more finessing. The word "done" tends to become pretty fluid in my art-making world.
Yet this is how I see this painting fitting into the 'Visual Spirituality' show: Each new day, we have a chance to 'get it right' or 'to start over' being kinder and more gentle with those around us, and those who cross our paths. Since each piece must have some writing by the artist or a quote as to how the artist sees their painting fitting the theme, I have chosen two quotes to go with this piece for the show:
“It is high time we realized that it is pointless to praise the light and preach it if nobody can see it. It is much more needful to teach people the art of seeing.”
“I understand once again that the greatness of God always reveals itself in the simple things.”
