The main body of work within this show, the Fog
Variations, explores that peaceful, hushed, almost mystical state that is the
morning fog. Come October, I see its thick blanket spread out over Green Lake
when I open the blinds, and it beckons. For a while the thick vapor obscures
all. But as soon as the fog starts to shift and lift, I grab the camera and
head down to the water. Though I know this lake as well as any acreage, the fog
lends a compelling sense of mystery. The colors are muted, nothing more than a promise.
Only what is closest—a floating dock, a bed of reeds—reveals itself. These poetic
layers of known and as-yet unknown, of softness and focus, of light and
atmosphere, have given me much to explore at the easel.
Compositionally, fog
has a wonderful way of simplifying, which I find deeply appealing. Too many
pictorial elements clutter a painting, while “breathing spaces” as I like to
call them, let me into the painting and allow me to focus on and revel in the
most essential. Besides simplifying an image, fog plays with light and color,
harmonizing and subduing the palette, adding to the sense of calm. I have no allegiance to reality-based colors,
and fog’s mysterious aura seems to encourage a bit of experimentation on this
front. Can fog read as fog in warm, sepia tones? How subtle can a film of color
be and still contribute when values run the gamut? The glazing method I
use—thin, transparent layers—really comes into its own with the subtle hues of
fog.
Meanwhile, there’s
the dramatic unfolding of light: each transcendent moment is a
painting-in-waiting, a challenge issued. The early, diffuse period is lovely in
its somber, soft tranquility. Slowly, bits of blue sky appear as the fog thins
on top, while the blanket recedes across the lake, leaving wispy traces here
and there. Then, when low sun burns through a patch of atmosphere, the light
dazzles as it bounces off particles of moisture. Dark lacey branches come into
sharp relief; water fowl paddle into view as they emerge from the vapor. The
high-contrast clarity in the foreground is all the more striking against the
backdrop: those strolling around the north end of the lake are still in a
romantic interlude of fog.
I stay until the mists
clear, then head home, inspired and grateful for a clear vision of the work
ahead of me. Christine Gedye, October 2012
