Precious Cargo

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8x6, water mixable oil on canvas board, 4/20/15

This painting is a response to this week's challenge on dailypaintworks.com--to take a reference photo and infuse into the painting a feeling of atmospheric perspective, with the darkest darks being in the foreground. I did this in three planes--the subjects containing the darkest darks, the medium darks in the footprints in the sand, and the lightest darks farther down on the beach where in my photo, there were a lot of busy darks I had to ignore. I think "faking" the feeling of atmosphere really helped with the composition here by drawing attention to the intended subjects. 

I'm fascinated by motherhood--though we all do it a little (or a lot) differently, we are united in our love and devotion to our precious cargo.

Photo reference from morguefile.com.

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