Turtle Cove - March 9, 2014 - Startled Flight

This posting is out of order, but I was not happy with the initial result, so I held it back for a while, in the corner of my studio, nagging at me.
I was actually out of town at this time, but my brother Robert was nice enough to stop at Turtle Cove on this Sunday for me at midday. He went overboard taking photos, so I was not at a loss for material. I chose this view at the south end of the main pond by the outflow.

Turtle Cove - March 2, 2014 - Frozen Rivulet

The cold is unrelenting this winter and it is another biting Sunday morning at Turtle Cove. There is such a variety of scenes to paint that I am sometimes hard-pressed to choose. I finally settled on this, a view of an iced up rivulet cutting through the marsh bordering the main pond.

Turtle Cove - February 23, 2014 - Geese on Ice: Forebearing the Freeze

This was yet another cold, cold morning in this seemingly endless winter. It is a bright morning however, and vibrant blue shadows are cast across the snow and ice. A flock of geese is settled in near the south end of the main pond which is entirely frozen over. A few seem to be picking at something in or on the ice, what, I don't know. Sadly, I notice a goose closer to me at the northern end which must have lingered too long seated on the ice. It was frozen in place and has died.

Turtle Cove -February 2, 2014 - Psychopomps

We are leaving for North Carolina and stop briefly at the south end of the main pond to take photos. It is overcast and foggy, the tide is running out through the culvert. The pond is completely iced over and bears a thick blanket of snow.
Again, it did not take me long to get what I wanted. The dropping tide is leaving a broken ice shelf sweeping along the curve of the shoeline. The overcast and fog leach color from the scene, making it dramatically different from the 2 prior weeks. The subtleties of color make it beautiful and a challenge to paint at the same time.
For visual balance an interest, I added 3 black crows to the scene. crows are just one of the animals that are mythologized as psychopomps. Psychopomps are angels/deities/spirits that escort the soul to the next world at death. As all things inherently include their opposite, they also are thought to escort souls into this world at birth. Jung defined the psychopomp as the connection between the conscious and the unconscious.

Turtle Cove - January 26, 2014 - Silent Passage

I've arrived at Turtle Cove at about 8:30 am. We've gotten about 5 or 6 inches of snow, and I am anxious to explore my opportunities at Turtle Cove. I learned my lesson and have bundled up properly this time.

It is a bright blue morning without a cloud in the sky. The kind of day that turns the shadows on the snow a cobalt blue.

I walk out onto the berm straight off. I can see there have been others here before me, but not many. Walking onto the bridge and facing the main pond, I look down at the break in the berm that allows the water to flow out of the second pond. It is full low tide, and there is my scene! Animal tracks through the snow lining the outflow. It was so special, I didn't look any further.

Turtle Cove - January 19, 2014 - Icing Over

This morning I arrived at the cove at about 9 a.m. I begin my photography at the northeast corner of the second pond. As I walk around the perimeter and out onto the berm, I am regretting my lack of gloves and hat. It is bitterly, cruely cold and my hands are aching in just a few short minutes of exposure. The payoff is that there is ice on the ponds and broken, scudding clouds allow enough beautiful morning light to make the golds of the phragmites and marsh grasses glow against the gray purples of the leafless winter woods.

I chose to paint from the roadside vantage point just north of the berm. This provided a view down and across the marsh and second pond with interesting branches breaking into the foreground.

Turtle Cove December 29, 2013 - Dropping Tide

It is a cool, but comfortable, gray morning. The certainty of rain hangs in the air. Pete drops me off by Glover's Rock so I can explore the possibilities for my concept series "A Month of Sundays - Turtle Cove."
As I walk up into the woods on the west side of the second pond, I am struck by how opened up it is now to the golf driving range. I wonder about loss of cover and habitat for the smaller critters like foxes and rabbits as a result of all the clearing that has occurred.
There are many vantage points that present great opportunities for paintings as I work my way around the east side of the second pond and onto the dividing berm.
I just cannot warm up to the bridge design, it still looks like a window washer's scaffold to my eye.
In reviewing my photographs later, the view I chose to paint first is of the second pond looking north from the berm at the east end of the bridge. The tide is low enough to reveal a slash of purple brown mud below the pale gold of the marsh grasses edging the pond.