Finding the Light

As the artist was painting this oil, his mind would often go to a couple of artists that lived in the same town, Monet and Bonnard. They were both "dabbers" with Monet saying he never finished a painting and Bonnard with this story, "When he had mixed a new color that was just right, he would revisit and retouch old work. Once, he persuaded his friend and fellow Symbolist Edouard Vuillard to distract a museum guard whilst he added his latest color to a hung painting." Quoted from the Port Magazine.

To begin this piece, Elliott pulled out an older canvas that was at a dead end. He had struggled mightily with it, resulting in a very thick veneer of paint. Perfect! For this new composition, he welcomed the ready-made texture and began to lay in the general outlines of this work.

The plan was to create a fully impressionist work with hundreds of marks to create the effect of tightly packed vegetation, but with the illusion of light and space. The arrangement was a simple one and open to colors of all kinds.

With these open brushstrokes, it quickly became apparent that each mark had a meaning. Some colors became backgrounds and others moved forward in the space differently. It was a bit like 3-D chess and a real delight to participate in a work that was essentially painting itself and bringing the artist along for the ride.