when something takes hold

a few years whilst up north one very cold November I took some pictures of the Yukon River

I've taken many, but that trip, on that day, I was after something very specific... I suppose I've got ahead of myself,,, this story actually begins several months before that November day in 2023

a few years before, I'd come across a copy of a photography book by Charles Prost of the gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny, France

Prost photographed the gardens once a week for an entire year, the book is a selection of images from each of the four seasons

for a number of reasons I didn't look at the book until the summer before that trip and it had a profound impact me... I have to look at it to remember the images from Spring, Summer and Fall;  the Winter ones have never left me 

their impact was deep and profound

I'd never seen water that way before, nor reflections, not as art in and of themselves

 on that cold November day on the banks of the Yukon River I was hoping for a little of that magic of my own

the light was low, blues and blacks emphasized

the river had an oily look to it, a beautiful sheen that grabbed the light, reflecting it back on the darkening sky

the trees on the water shimmered black, unmoving yet indistinct as the current flowed through them

enlarging the images simply enhances the blur

today I decided to take that inspiration for a spin and work with it, in paint

what I did is not a rendering, nor an attempt to try

it's simply an attempt at interpretation, based on inspiration

using matte acrylic paint along with acrylic ink in colours inspired by the photos, I taped off a piece of heavyweight cartridge paper into four sections and had a try

first dabbing, swishing, and streaking white here and there across the four rectangles

then layers of black, indigo, sepia, separately and all mixed together, over and over again

scratched into

and pulled back with dabs of a paper towel

again and again, layer after layer

hoping at the end I'd have something that perhaps came close to what had inspired me first in the book and then at the river

in the end I got there

not sure how but these are going to be a factor in what I do over the next week... the first thing to do is print the photos on some of the fine art papers I've recently added to my collection and take it from there

and then start all over again