Paintings of Water

I vaguely remembered that my astronomical numbers says my "FATE" is "Wood" based and therefore should refrain from too much "Water", as flood destroys and sweeps away timber.  I believe it is this hazy memory that causes me to be afraid of water, to the point of pinching my nose when showering or else eliciting the reflex of hyperventilating.  Having gills would be numero uno on my dream list.

Yet water mesmerizes me.  The deep abyss with all its might, yet glistens and ripples and glistens.

I love to paint water, trying to capture that fleeting moment of movement, of that sparkle.   Water is a common theme in my paintings.  In fact the way I beguile myself into this hobby was by painting a family of Canada geese swimming by the backyard.  Unfortunately I am often rewarded with frustration but lately I've been exploring this subject matter again.

 this was done in charcoal

Circular ripples are fascinating.  Everybody knows them, but trying to portray them as not cook top heating elements is a different story.

 ink on Xuan                

The difficulty is, in my view, rooted in our innate desire to form and trace the outlines of circles, and ignore ( or unable to ) translate the motion of the ripple.  We should be painting  the energy of the outwardly radiating concentric circles, and not the circles themselves.   I am not happy at all with my attempts, too static!  Forgive me for being a sexist, but this is akin to a nice girl... proper and nice in every way, but ah so bland.  We need to have ripples once in a while.

Note to self:  keep painting these circles until you are sick of them then you'll be released by your bias as to what they SHOULD or NEED to look like.   After these shackles are off, then try again.