Finely ground black sand overlies coarser light sand at a particular location along the shore of Lake Michigan.

Rough surf paints in black sand.
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Starting this post, I thought that I would not dare to take these sand paintings of a Great Lake as motifs for my own oil painting. That was similar to my attitude towards a ‘stone painting’ done by the same Great Lake a few year ago with its receding water. The dropping water level exposed rocks arranged in wondrous ways. These stone people are now again submerged – mysteries in the sculpturing of the lake shore.

Thinking more about the sand paintings shown above, I am beginning to think that, with my increasing expertise, a few years from now, I may dare to portrait them, not in their exquisite detail, but rather in a more abstract fashion. That way, I would, in my own small way, follow the footsteps of such giants as Rothko and Turner, but doing so without permanently reducing my mind with, as my students now euphemistically say ‘substance use’ rather than ‘substance abuse’. In the meantime, interested in color interactions, I still have to learn a lot.

Is there a cycle of ‘colore versus disegno’ in a person’s life time as well as throughout the centuries?