Traffic Obstacle

It always happens that the best composition is viewed from an awkward location. I try to keep an open mind when I'm looking for the scene to paint. I think of it as the zen experience where you're walking around and you're mind is chattering, "I should paint water around rocks...or this direction has great back lighting...here's a chance to work with waves on the shore...this spot's out of the wind." And then out of the blue, like yesterday when I was walking up the winding road towards Nobska lighthouse I was struck with what was in front of me. A moment of clarity and a subject I wouldn't normally have thought of. I looked down at my feet and they barely fit between the white line and the barrier separating the road from the rocks and water below. I looked up at the curve in the road where approaching cars have to slow down because the road narrows and a stone wall hides the oncoming traffic. One of those spots where you always feel like you're driving too fast and you pass cars too narrowly. But the biggest distraction was the view: it's spectacular.

I found other safer spots off the road, where I could sit down and still have a view to work with but they just weren't as good. I remember my new maxim (in testing): the harder it is to paint the better it is if I can pull it off. So I strap my French easel to the barrier and set up my palette, careful not to step over the white line. I imagine someone coming around the corner, cell phone tucked under her ear, driving with one hand and craning her neck to look over the guardrail at the view and around the corner there I am, camped against the side of the road. I imagine a police car pulling up and as he puts the car in park he shakes his head disapprovingly (next time hire a traffic cop.) Or as a car slows down I turn, expecting a rebuke from a concerned citizen but instead it's, "Can we see?"

©2006 DOUG RUGH. Artwork may not be reproduced without permission.