"Piankatank Moon"

8" x 10" Oil on Canvas

I haven't finished any new paintings since "Virginia Wine" so I thought I'd upload another old one. I painted this one several years back when I was a Junior or so in College while spending the week by myself at my grandparent's river house on the Piankatank River in Mathews, VA. If you drive to Richmond, VA and head straight east until you can't drive any farther, you'll wind up somewhere close to Mathews, VA.

The piece of blue-green land in the distance is Gwynn's Island and beyond the island is the Chesapeake Bay. My family's house is basically a cinder block fishing shack amongst multi-million dollar mansions, but it's my favorite place on earth and I've stayed there multiple times per summer for close to 30 years now.

This particular trip was the first time I had stayed there by myself. It was late summer and I was trying to get my head right for going back to school in the fall. I lived off of fish and crabs that I caught myself and had as little interaction with civilization as possible.

This is the only painting I worked on that week and it actually took months to finish whereas it would probably take about two hours for me to complete such a painting today. Through reading and working with color, I've become more adept at recognizing the correct colors to use on the first try. I spent months trying to find the correct colors for the ripples in the water and I repainted it several times.

Still, I'm proud of this painting and it represents a special place in my life in both the location and a time when I was a lot wilder and quite uncertain as to where the river would take me. I gave this painting to my brother who, like me, is attached to the river.