The newest addition to my ongoing Natural Abstractions series is called Estuary Light. It is from an image I took last summer while camping at Spencers Spit on Lopez Island in Washington’s San Juan islands. The configuration of light and shadow, when cropped narrowly, becomes a compelling abstraction of the landscape. This was painted in acrylic on birchboard. I kept the strokes of paint immediate and took care not to overwork, keeping the color clear and strong. It was also important to me to let the warm color of the wood come through. This worked well in the mid area of mirrored water.
As I continue to explore this idea of composing landscapes in a small frame of reference, where the shapes become more than a description of an actual landscape and become a natural abstraction of the landscape, I get more and more excited about the possibilities.
To see more of my landscapes, on the land, of the sky with birds and the underwater world of fish see Susan Luckey Higdon’s fine art website!
