KIEFERART FINE ART UP CLOSE

"Like Buttuh"
Oil on profile canvas (unframed), 12" x 12"

$400 (US customers only) PURCHASE INFO

Essentially, this is a green value study of the subject (just lights and darks). The light was low (dawn). Color is indistinguishable without light, so this idea worked well to give the impression of that time of day. What's left, without color to guide a painting, is texture and depth. I used cools to create the layers of distance and warms to bring the foreground close. Color saturation and hard/soft edges were important to create that illusion as well. Soft ripples behind the kayak and where the paddle touches the water define the lake as being glassy and calm. The undisturbed clarity of the figure's reflection in the water does that, too. The fog in the mid-ground adds to that windless, quiet feeling. You could hear the sound of your own heart beat.

The viewer won't know this, of course, but about a half hour later, when the two of us paddled deep into those foggy reeds, a beaver slapped his tail in the water next to us as we had inadvertantly come close to his nest. At that point, we couldn't see a thing. It sounded like a shotgun going off in that quiet. Believe me, you never know how strong a paddler you are until you need to get outta there.