Sugar Creek

sugar creek_1.jpg

Shortly after I moved to Indiana ten years ago, my friend Joe taught me how to fish for smallmouths in the rivers.  We’d just wear our swimming suits, a tee shirt, tennis shoes, sunglasses, and a ball cap.  We would wade down the stream and cast our lines to the sides near tree roots.  Soon we’d have a hit and the water would splash as we reeled in a nice smalley.

I’ve always enjoyed water and have loved painting the rivers here.  This painting is of Sugar Creek in central Indiana.  It shows what it looks like in the early evening.  The trees in the distance have sunlight on them, so I painted warm colors  —   light green, orange, brown.  The closer ones are in the shadows, so they have been done in bluish tones.  The colors of the sky and sunlit trees are reflected in the water.  If there was sound you’d hear the cicadas singing in the trees and my feet splashing in the water.  This is one of the things I love about living here.

Comments on Sugar Creek

August 9, 2008

Larraine @ 12:28 pm #

That’s such beautiful water and reflections!The trees look so real – like I could touch them.

Christine @ 2:42 pm #

That is gorgeous. Can I have it? 🙂

Christine @ 2:42 pm #

Please, please, please can I have it?

Larraine @ 3:25 pm #

I AGREE STRONGLY WITH CHRISTINE! Maybe we could work out a sharing plan, like time-share condos.

James Vinton @ 3:47 pm #

This seems to be exactly opposite of most instructors I have had. Dark,cool into the distance and light, warm into the front. I like your painting anyway but you are a good enough painter to pull it off.

tom slack @ 5:12 pm #

You’re right, Jim. Usually the cool is in the distance and the warm is in front. Warm colors are in the front, cool colors recede. That is how it is on a sunny day. The trees at front are warm, but the further back you god the lighter and bluer it gets.
This is a different situation entirely, though. The warm colors show up because the sunlight is on them. The bluer colors up front are caused because there is no sunlight at all because the scene is in shadow. Because of this, the colors at front are dark and blue, a completely different color theory.

Jennifer @ 5:29 pm #

I love the water on this one!! Amazing reflections!

rosemary @ 7:36 pm #

do you know the difference between a smallmouth and a bigmouth bass?

The small mouth is the male.