There is a bit of a story behind this one. This painting started as a plein air start looking at the marsh fairly close up. It was to be about the grass and reflections. However, 2 years later when I fund this panel again and kept it out in the open for a while and kept looking at it , I saw something else. I began to see a nocturne, I night view of the marsh. The clump of grass became the distant tree. The water around the grasses became a creek..

this is what I had to start with . I was painting from this scene on location.

This is the same view at low tide

This is the original under painting that I did on location in oils I was looking at the scene at high or nearly high tide.

After looking at that rough block for months in I finally saw something. I didn't go back to the photos but only worked from what I imagined I saw in the block in. I was seeing a nocturne, a moon lit marsh

After several starts and stops and thinking I was done I came to this point. This is the first "finished " stage. I thought I was done. My idea is to try to keep the landscapes abstract. but I couldn't help myself. I kept refining it. I wanted to get the perspective right, I didn't want it to look like a wall with paint on it.

So this is where I finally stopped. I left some of the original block in showing in the lower left corner. It's signed in the lower right. This will get it's first showing at the Spring Arts Fest. next week after that it will get loaded to my websites.