Reflection (103 x 103 cm)

Reflection is one of those subjects that seem to appear as a consequence of looking for other subjects. Walking along a beach on the south-western side of Fraser Island, there were some shallow banks with a few mangroves on the water’s edge … the tide, swirling in from a calm sea, creating eddies around the trunk bases. I was looking through the camera lens at mangrove subjects that would stand out against a background of white sand, when I noticed the bank itself in front of me, only just covered in water, the sand visible underneath. The surface was reflecting sky-blue lights with darks from the mangrove shadows. Good subject, I thought, but how to show that undercurrent in the painting? The surface lights and sandy bottom?

The answer I hope is in the finished work that was exhibited in my last exhibition On the Edge II. Logically the sandy base comes first, then the shadows and then the lights. So the painting was completed in stages, one layer of paint drying before the next was applied. The impression of water movement was gained by using transparent layers of paint, showing plenty of raised direction with the underneath peering through. The prominent rhythms are pushing out of the canvas edges at the 1.618 regions, the main mass is moving around the top left pole, and bright blue reflections at the bottom right are balancing the lights at the top left. A simple but good composition – the painting not so simple.