The Bench That Fixed It | Field Notes from Bataquitos Lagoon

It had been a long day. I needed to sit somewhere quiet and I found a shady bench at Bataquitos Lagoon and just stayed there for a while.

I started painting on location. The water was that soft grey-blue that lagoons get in the afternoon when the light stops trying so hard. The reeds along the near shore were all warm gold and brown, dry and tall and completely still.

I finished it from a photo later. But the feeling was already in it by the time I left that bench.

Sometimes a painting is less about the place and more about the exhale.

The painting is part of my Altoids Tin Series. Original oil on wood panel, about 2.5 x 3.5 inches, mounted inside an Altoids tin. Available now at dianalisa.com