Rethinking acrylic painting after inspirations from snorkeling at Turneffe Flats Atoll

Before my trip to Turneffe Flats my first  plan was to paint a sky with great depth. Then I thought an abstract direction. Taking on a completely new direction because I loved the texture of a hand prepared canvas.the painting would be about paint and fabric. Then I thought this could be an underwater scene with a ray swimming.

After returning and seeing a number of rays swimming gracefully, This jagged swim line for the ray is wrong. I thought of Duchamp's nude descending a stircase. I then rejected the angularity of cubism. In Belize I was more fascinated by bubbles rising from snorkels and how they wiggled and reflected a calidascope of the surrounding colors.

Photographs do not show the movement over time like my perception.

When I painted the bubbles rising to the surface. The surface is darker in this painting. If I am going to be accurate about my memory of the surface plane, it would be lighter and more broken up reflecting colors of the sandy bottom. It occured to me that I could turn the painting upside down. Or I could  put more swaths of sky blue and smaller swaths of the warm tones at the sandy floor.

a new year and redwing blackbirds

Tomorrow happens to be the Chinese New Year and I just read an article that said certain foods are regarded as good luck to be eaten on that day. Rather than waiting to post this tomorrow, I put it up early for readers (who didn't already know this) to go shopping if so inclined.

Foods for Chinese New Year

And then there is this. I had noticed that our window glass creates an outside illusion when we have a fire in the fireplace and the light outside is just right. When the blackbirds are visiting the feeder, they look as though they are flying through flames. It's kind of an apropos mix of nature and spiritual thinking as reflections often are.  

It wasn't easy to capture it with a photo as often there seemed more flames than the camera could record. I can watch and listen to the redwing blackbirds for hours as they come in a cloud, sing, and squabble. When they leave, it's often as a flock.  I believe when times seem darkest, watching birds is one fix that can lift one's mood. The birds carry with them many lessons; and of course, are beautiful.