Today our painting adventure took to Merryspring Nature Center in Camden, Maine. This park is a really complicated place to paint since it is layers of foliage and flowers and there is just too many things to be intrigued by. My demonstration was a painting of a path leading in to the woods. I wanted to make sure that the piece of light, white paper, which represents the path really served to lead the viewer into the painting. I also wanted to express the colors and layers of texture that represents the woods interior. It works but just barely, the composition has trouble getting out of the left corner.
The Path
It’s not a significant path
One that leads to a wonderful vista
A romantic picnic spot
Or a secret rendezvous
No, it’s a piece of light followed by another
Then another
Taking me into and through
Past thickets,
Hardwood and saplings
Catching glimmers of colors that float
To the ground like a trickle from a spring
A private place where peace is found
Embedded in the tangle of thoughts
That resides inside my brain
And with each step
Another layer falls away
Like pages turning in the wind
I walk this path just for me,
When I arrive
I’ll know to rest
And remember,
Every step
This path is home to me
poem by Steve Fleming and copyrighted 2016