fresh from the easel

Just finished this 30x30, part of a new series of more narrative pieces. It's from a trip to Cortez near St. Pete a few years back. I've been wanting to do more paintings of our times, people doing what they do, hopefully without artifice (women in billowy dress on the beach), going about their busy work lives and this scene really struck a cord. It's a composite of a few different shots but what I like about it is a thing that is common in my work, the idea of busy vs rest.  It's a kind of balancing act with a lot of information and the lack of it. It's something I look for in a scene. Lots of angles, lots of space and hopefully the right mix for one to support the other. The hardest part was to paint the traps without overstating them. I painted in the masses of color where the mesh of the traps grouped up and where the ground or sky wanted to show through more and then did a back and forth of more and less mesh, sky and ground showing through untill I got the right balance. Looks pretty good for now, I'm starting another and will take another look at this when I get a chance. Peace out yo.