“Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen.”
― Leonardo da Vinci
I have this quote in mind frequently, in fact I have a printed scrap with this quote cut out of a newspaper article pinned to my bulletin board in the studio.
As I worked on this oil painting from a Michigan beach this summer I thought about how I wanted to convey a visual poem. The time of day is late, before sunset, but toward the end of a long summer afternoon stretching towards evening and thoughts of what is for dinner tonight. The sky is brilliant, the sun is too bright and low making all the shadows deep and people stand out as silhouettes. It's what the lakeside dwellers call the diamond hour, that sparkling moment when it is still hot and light but very much the end of a long day in the sun.
