At Peace With Nature has several firsts for me.

One, it’s a 5×7 stretched canvas, another size like my recent 6×12, A Walk Among the Wildflowers, I haven’t done in quite awhile, certainly even further back by maybe even decades, lol! It’s an interesting size, being small, yet enabling and enhancing the sense of length or height, like the 6×12, but more subtly. And I do have a recent unopened pack of 5×7 canvas panels I was to take with us to Vermont this summer, but that’s not happening, so, by testing the waters with this small Fredrix 5×7 I’ve had stored for years I think, I have a new purpose for them for now 😊

Two, a real rarity for my more recent very smallish work, this image – for me anyways – appeals as strongly to me from a distance as up close (where the detail & nuance is of course more visibly obvious). But what’s surprised me with At Peace With Nature, is how pleasing it’s been passing by it, even from 7, 8 feet or more away. I’m still a little puzzled, but very pleased by it. Other work I really like, also attracts my eye from a distance, but compels me to looks much closer, with the urge to see if there’s more. With this small piece, I know there’s more, but if I’m short on time and long on chores 😊 I’m very happy to’ve caught a glimpse from afar. Very strange, or unusual, but also very nice!

And three, though I usually choose, with watercolor, to either let the colors run or drain or blend ad hoc, or blend them very carefully in layers or via brush laden water soakings, there’s significant portions in the sky and water I also blended in a modified pointillism/impressionism, dotting areas of color with white gouache, varying the size of the dotting and spacing between them to achieve a more visual blending, something I enjoyed doing with my water soluble oils, thickly, and here, this time, enjoyed doing much more thinly, with varying degrees of water in the gouache. Interesting anyway, letting distance and the eye do those areas of the blending ❤️

Above is a detail, showing some of what I meant in the 3rd (last point) above. Sometimes I could decide when very close to the surface where and how much to apply in this semi-impressionist manner. Other times, from just a few feet away I could decide. All in all, a very fun, very interesting little piece.

At Peace With Nature took me much longer to finish than anticipated. I thought I had it down after the initial layin, the land masses, fog masses, and reflections, which have remained almost entirely intact.

But the thin impressionist blending I mentioned above has taken me a few days. A few days spent in a visual-application struggle to get the right feel.

That, and getting the tiny boat/canoe & figure in it right, lol!

The latter, the figure and boat, started as a surf boarder, then three birds, then one bird, and finally what’s seen now, lol! Included in the struggle to get the right figures on the water, was their scale, to allow the terrain to have the intended scale. I kept reducing and reducing the inset til finally it worked. Finished by very gradually diminishing its saturation, thus enhancing the sense of distance I wanted, and the (literally) saturated atmosphere of the picture as a whole.

I hope everyone who stops by is staying well, or well as can be, and is enjoying & finding hope in those things and people that can be enjoyed 💕

Adan

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My Latest Posts On My Website!

• January 01, 2023 – Happy New Year! : My Most Viewed Image the Last Week of 2022 @FineArtAmerica, Little Steps PosterJanuary 1, 2023
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• December 18, 2022 – 1st Return Appearance Since Spring : My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, Blue with Gold Twilight – #PanoramaDecember 18, 2022
  Ocean waves of blue fill our skies and seas, cascading sighs and whispers of inspiration with each breath.
• December 11, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Morning Light in Barton Springs Greenbelt, Austin Poster” ( circa 2021 ) #AustinTexas #AustinPhotographyDecember 11, 2022
  Morning Light Poster also recently sold at the Old Bakery and Emporium 🙏😌
• December 03, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Costa Rica Sunset Panorama” : circa 2017December 3, 2022
  I almost skipped even posting about it, but at 4x the views of the nearest most viewed of my images, I needed to drag myself out of my whatever-it-is recent posting stagnation, lol!
• November 21, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Dispatcher” : circa 2011November 21, 2022
  I thought Dispatcher had once already been one of my most viewed of my work on Fine Art America, but I guess not! 😊 It’s been a popular poem, and with the holidays upon us, a great choice as a print or coffee mug ☕️ 🇺🇸
• November 13, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Cypress Creek Mid Afternoon Mid October” : Circa 2019November 13, 2022
  Very unusual to have so many photos from my collection of images at Fine Art America show up among my 12 most viewed images there at FAA, and for so many showing up for the 1st time….
• November 08, 2022 – The Mid-Term Elections 2022 : This is It! If the Elections Are Important to You…VOTE!!!November 8, 2022
  If the elections are important to you – vote! 😊🇺🇸🙏

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Thanks again, everyone! 😊

Adan

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