"Man, you hadda be there!"

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 1 May, 2020, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm

There are days when I paint as if I had taken some mushrooms but had somehow forgotten that I had. The polished sky is so clean, and yet this colourful kitsch manifests without any artifice. It is real and freely offered to us all, and it can be painted with one's own personal wand. For a painter, it is the empirical horizon line between Art and Nature.

But like the surfers say, "Man, you hadda be there!"

I like most skies though, muted ones with marbled soft greys, effervescent ones, and skies which make you really happy that you are a painter of skies. But they don't always come easily. 

There are solutions to be found. Where does the foreground begin? Where is the upper limit of the sky? Where is the horizon line today? But, weirdly, one just jumps in and hopes for the best just like the surfer. There is an art to almost everything concerning the sea after all.