Salt Marsh Triptych

Salt Marsh Triptych

Oil on three 12x24 canvases

Commission 

Give me half an entry, and I will shove my foot in the door and talk about my paintings. If I have paint all over me and you ask me if I'm a painter, I will be off and running. 

Last year, when I was staying at the little hotel in town, and unloading a painting of the salt marsh, a man staying at the hotel asked if I was a painter. I showed him the piece, and he loved it, so I gave him my card and told him my story. 

A month or so later, he got in touch with me, wanting a painting of the salt marsh. We settled on a triptych, to be done in the fall. He's coming to town this weekend, and so on Sunday, I began the project.                                                                                                                                                                     I                                                                             I have two plein-air easels, but I'd left one in Connecticut. So I fixed two of the canvases to the side of the car with my cell-phone gizmos, and put the third on my easel, leaning against the car. What you can't see from the photo is that clamps, like the ones at the bottom, are holding the canvases at the tops, also. 

It was pretty windy, and one of the gizmos was not working right, but eventually, I got it all set up.

It was a lovely sunset, too! The air was clear and blue, with pink clouds and gold near the horizon. The water shone. About a billion gulls had gathered on the mud, and though I didn't paint them in, I liked watching them. There are regular gulls here, and also laughing gulls, and honestly, it's not a misnomer. It sounds like they're laughing!

I finished the painting yesterday, on my studio easel and my plein air easel, and ended the day covered with paint, which I then got all over the car, the garage, Peter and my friend Pat. But I ended the day also with a painting that I absolutely love.

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It is Sept. 11, and the early sky promises a blue not unlike the blue of 11 years ago. I say a prayer this morning for the families and the friends of all who perished in the Twin Towers, and hope that they have found their way back into lives that are meaningful and sweet to them.