Daybreak at the Gut

A show at the Senior Center — October 2024

The current group of paintings resulted from a trip that my wife and I made to Martha’s Vineyard in October 2023.  A friend and I got the 5:30 AM ferry to Chappaquiddick intending to fish the Gut where we could expect many fish.

I had forgotten my fishing gear, but I had my phone. The photos that I took turned out to  a gold mine of images that I have used for these paintings.

The atmosphere at daybreak was foggy, but absolutely still.  At this time of day colors are muted (or grayed) but very intense. There was a group of waves from a boat several miles away that arrived and slightly disturbed the glassy sea. The clouds and the rising sun made for brilliant colors in the eastern sky. The rising sun cast a spotlight on structures which protrude from the landscape while the surrounding land remains dark. This was for me, a magical experience.