Slipstream

Here’s a new addition to my series of Burano buildings reflected in water. Coming up with titles for paintings like this is difficult, and I enjoy bouncing ideas off Jeff. This one stumped us for a long time, and as I type this Jeff is still playing around with words like turbulence. But as of 5:28 pm CST, I’m calling it Slipstream. It’s a word I rarely have the opportunity to use but have liked for 18 years thanks to its inclusion in U2′s “Zooropa” (at around 2:35), which is currently the best thing about U2′s set list this summer.

OK, enough of that stuff. Here’s the painting again, in case you’ve forgotten what it looks like.

If you look at this upside down, you can see a lineup of half a dozen homes. It’s 21″x25″, and it took me six days to paint. Slipstream also features a boat with a snazzy gold insignia. My sister Emily has a special term for what the boat is doing in the picture: creeping. This boat is a creeper.

Some of the colors here are bright, but most are muted, especially compared with those of my last painting. For some reason these colors reminded me of those you might find in a J. Crew catalog, colors with names like “creamery” and “sap.” Most of the upper-right quadrant is in shadow. I painted that entire area a flat blue-gray before adding the other colors and details, and doing so helped establish that section as darker and cooler than the rest.

I painted the lower-left section, where the sky is reflected on the water, in about five minutes. I flooded the space with clear water and dropped in lots of diluted turquoise paint. This is the only way I know how to produce a large flat wash that’s free of streaks. The paper went into shock and wanted to buckle, so I had to keep my eye on the paint for a while to keep it from pooling. It took over a half hour (or maybe closer to an hour?) before the paper calmed down and was flat again.

When I started this painting, I didn’t think I would fall in love with it as much as I have. I can’t wait to see it matted, framed, under (plexi)glass, and up on a wall.

PS Can you find the Italian flag somewhere in the water? It’s not an exact Italian flag, but it’s pretty close.