For Rita

Today is the Celebration of Life for my mother-in-law, Rita.  Rita was not much for metaphors and symbols, she wanted you to say what you mean and mean what you say, straight and simple.  Nevertheless an artist is not an artist if they do not rely on such things so with apologies to her I post this painting as a tribute to Rita.  This is Bob, her son, headed out to greet the dawn with his one-man kayak on the beach.  This scene struck me as appropriate because we both believe that his mother is off on a new adventure, tackling the unknown that we can only imagine.  High key scenes (very little contrast and almost no darks) are difficult to paint but I liked the way the horizon line between ocean and sky was almost non-visable, you know it is there, you just cannot see it, like God.  And so I labored on this for her.  She lived near the ocean for much of her adult life.  Here's "Godspeed" for the next chapter Rita, thank you for being a simple and straightforward Mother-in-law...we will indeed miss you.

"New Dawn" is done in pastel on paper and is 7x 5, matted in white for a standard 10 x 8 frame.