Sight the Tarpon, 24″ x 30″, oil on canvas
I love painting those aggressive fish! There is something about the look in their eye…
This particular painting found the fish blending in and out of the background, I love the look- it is quite representational yet I keep looking at those beautiful greens as if maybe there is something else to see behind the forms of the tarpon’s face. Sort of fun to think about…I almost don’t know which parts I’m looking at are the fish or the water.
Really what is happening here is the Tarpon is equally emerging and retreating on the picture plane. At the pulse of what I do is to infuse movement into each painting…almost simultaneously capturing the water and the fish. “Sight the Tarpon” is a lovely example of that. I paint using mainly the palette knife to simply impart a raw energy to my paintings- that excitement I feel when fishing, seeing these beautiful creatures and being on the water- the palette knife allows me to move paint around in a way that captures all of that. Those memories are with me when I paint, and even if I haven’t yet caught a particular species (in this case the Tarpon) the imagery of the fish are so beautiful to me that I end up painting what I imagine the experience would be like. This painting started out with no outline, I just applied that colors that I saw in the water and eventually started carving out the forms of the Tarpon with the knife. I loved the process on this piece; it was inventive, curious, and inspired.
Connect with me on facebook!