Lost Horizon II - 8th of 11 paintings in the March JAHC show

What is a lost horizon? What is a lost edge?

Lost Horizon II        Oil on wood panel    30 x 36 inches

This is an abstracted painting - lost and soft edges are everywhere!

To define lost, soft and hard edges  *THIS* post

 by Lori Woodward in FineArtViews does a very good job.

In the finished painting above, the hardest edges are in the trees on the right, the old pilings

 and -kind of- at the waterline at the left more distant view.

There is no horizon line and that was my inspiration. 

The day I viewed this scene, the light was flat, and it truly looked like the sky and water merged. 

I loved it.

Photo (taken by my husband) from that hazy, flat light day:

This little painting sketch is my original Lost Horizon.

Lost Horizon      oil on wood panel    5 x 6 inches

 These photos follow the process of my large painting. One of my goals 

was to use acrylic molding paste in this painting for texture on the beach.

First sketch on the 30 x 36. Used a white pastel pencil.

Modeling paste smeared on

Defining the shapes of the land masses, trees, water and sky

Adding some color

Trying to keep the feeling of the small painting

Almost finished 

I was stuck here for  awhile. The atmosphere was not where I wanted it.

Then it hit me to just smear 

with a large spackling/drywall-trowel/straight-edge thing

loaded with paint. 

I took a couple of deep breaths 

and said "it's only paint" and smeared away.

It was what I wanted.

Another goal for our group show was to get even more abstract. This was harder than it seemed.

So, I tried it - stay tuned for more Lost Horizon on my next post.

Thank you so much for viewing my art.