This is a rather sad painting. Or maybe an angry painting. A friend of mine died unexpectedly when I was in the middle of painting Dawn (Those Who Go). Some folks seem to work through emotions using their art, but it’s not something I can do; I just get all “cloudy”… for want of a better word. Anyroad, it took ages to get back to painting Dawn, and as I had been hiking in the bush on short winter days, I painted this painting of the evening gloom before I went back to finish Dawn.
Despite my best efforts to not think about the finished article, I generally hope that folks will enjoy my paintings, as they are painted to share my love of the landscape where I live. This painting is different. This is not one to enjoy. It looks like a bruise, and I used a whole lot of black, which is unusual for me.
When the English painter Clarkson Stanfield complained that Turner in the painting Peace – Burial at Sea had painted the sails in the steamer as black as he could make them Turner replied “If I could find anything blacker than black I’d use it.”
Those who stay pick ourselves up and keep living.