Morning Light

I painted this scene while standing on the shore of a beautiful bay in Baybridge, Massachusetts. I was on a painting trip with a fellow painter and we stayed in a motel near this location.

Every morning we would have breakfast at a nearby restaurant, then set out to find a painting location. Looking out the window of the restaurant, I could see the first rays of light streaming in across the bay and hitting the sides of the buildings.

First it would stream across the water to the tall grasses and then onto the grey buildings near the shore.

It’s always great to catch morning light before the sun gets too high in the sky. The contrast between the cool color of the water and buildings, and the warm colors of the morning light made an emotional statement that I had to capture on canvas.

For me, painting is always about a mood or emotion. I feel that to have a successful painting, I must find the mood and convey it through paint. If a painter has done his or her job well, the painting really needs no explanation. Anyone should be able to look at the subject and understand why it was painted.