Bothell Landing 3

Author
William E. Elston

Published
May 09, 2016

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I returned to Bothell Landing with several plein air students this past week, and reworked an image that was begun at this time a year ago. Looking up the slough, with the early sun passing through the trees and lighting the embankment beyond, there was one difference: This year the Cottonwood trees had decided to let loose their snow-flurry of puffy seeds a bit early.

In the painting you can see the evidence in the grayish surface debris that eddies with the current, but at times it really was like a snowstorm. One had to be on guard to keep the stuff from landing on palette and painting, and to avoid breathing the stuff lest one become like the victims of one of Heliogabalus fatal petal parties.

The end painting is more textural, as it was done over an unfinished painting of another subject. I rarely do this, preferring to paint on fresh canvas. But occasionally one must, when there is not a ready canvas of the appropriate size at hand. Under such circumstances I try to take advantage of the shapes and value structure of what lies beneath, and incorporate the textural effects into my new conception.

The heat also presented a challenge. It seems that rarely can good compositions be seen from the shade. “Fishermen do not fish in the sand,” the old Spanish saying goes. I usually work with umbrellas, but they shade the painting and my palette, and leave precious little protection for me. Their purpose is to control the light as it falls on my work, as it is too difficult to judge color accurately in full sunlight.

Bothell Landing is far from being the pastoral oasis that it appears in this painting. Behind me is a bustling park of children, bicyclists, budding martial artists, yoga enthusiasts and the noise of motorists on Bothell Way and beyond. In the city one must take one’s bucolic pleasures where they are to be found.