To use photo inspiration or not.

In my paintings I will  not borrow the color arrangement in these photographic compositions. I will not reproduce the detail that is recognizably in these pictures. Turneffe Flats Adventure Guide, Abel Coe, gave those of us who he took snorkeling permission to publish his pictures on the internet or publish them in a book if we give him a copy. Yet copying his pictures in paint is plagiarism. And also important is the split second  exposure makes a picture frozen in time unlike how I am experienced it.

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.

Tropical waters inspired abstracts in process

Coral reef colors first, then water movement followed by pattern and texture are the inspiring memories I brought home and were foremost in my mind.  As I started to paint, I took into account the materials I had to express my delight.  Watercolor was my painting medium of choice to express the beauty of light in the pristine waters of the reef that I saw snorkeling at Turneffe Flats Atoll.

First came the juicy somewhat rectangular colors. Then I added pencil and crayon drawings of repetitive patterns. During this process I marveled at the juxtaposition of randomness and structured organized life in the reef. Painting extended the joys of the vacation.

I saw two compositions  as my painting /collage evolved. So I turned the board and cut it in half.  I wasted only a small piece of board so my pictures would fit in the frame.  The lavender fan being a collage piece could be moved around until I found a sweet spot.



Collage of my handmade papers and purchased paper
 over watercolor

Watercolor, mixed media and collage

I love underwater photographs of the reef but I also like the emotional involvement of abstracting from my memories because these paintings express my internal reality.  These collages remind me of small details I focused on while snorkeling. Also the feeling of water movement gently swaying me this way and that.  Some tall sponges and corals reminded me of  human anatomy like our fingers. In previous landscapes I found the shapes of the hand and fingers like in the basalt columns of Coyote Rock, on the Siletz River in Oregon.