I’m still determined to find something beautiful every day in my scenically challenged region. Today it was overcast, which eliminates all the cool things that happen when sunlight strikes a patch of golden weeds or shadows reach their purple fingers toward you.
I decided to brave the tick-infested woods to visit the pond behind my house. The last time I walked there I got 32 (I counted them) deer flies bites which itched intensely for a week. This time I used insecticide and wore a red shirt so hunters had no excuse if they shot me.
I took a bunch of pictures of beautiful things like blaze orange fungus on a log and the blackened stump of a tree that had been felled by lightening. Still, there was little contrast, no dramatic highlights and shadows. We like contrast whether we admit of not. No drink ever tasted as good as the plain water we drank after being waterless and thirsty for a few hours.
The pond and dock was kind of pretty though. About the time I took the photo for the painting I heard a large creature crashing through the woods nearby. “Just a deer,” I told my self. “When have you ever heard a deer that clumsy?” self asked. So I came home and painted “Pond and Dock.”
Note: The gray stuff hanging down is Spanish Moss. It hangs from most trees around here and has both beautiful, and slightly creepy qualities.
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