Brushes with the Landscape

Eastport Cliffs This drawing was inspired by the view from the outside deck of a restaurant in Eastport.  As I've mentioned before throughout this blog, my love of nature fuels my art, but often requires some adjustments to create a composition for a painting.  This scene is calm, as the sea was calm.  Still, for me the calm the cliff with the tree creates a tension.  How many more storms will the tree last?  Will it grow too large for its roots to support or will the foundation of rock tumble into the sea taking the tree with it. In this case while remaining true to the subject: I've moved the house down the hill toward the cliffs and moved the houses chimney to reduce distraction.   The islands in the distance did exist, but I've added a channel in between to add distance as a landmass across the picture would stop the eye from moving into the painting. The cliffs existed, some of the patterns of of the rocks and shadows were altered for com