BONNIEBROOK SUNRISE
A full moon was what drew me from my bed so early in the morning on a cold February morning in 2008. The sky was clear and the air crisp and refreshing, in the short term at least. Soon it would bite with icy teeth. My friend Barry Haynes, a professional photographer, was of the same mind so together we made our way to Bonniebrook Beach at least an hour before the sun would rise.
To the north and west it was still dark. The night would hold its tenuous grip for a while longer yet. Looking southeast, however, the skies were promising. The glow of the morning sun somewhere below the horizon guaranteed a spectacular show, and the much-needed warmth of the day. As we stood, cameras on their tripods at the ready, our fingers and toes began to freeze up. The cold air coming off of Georgia Straight took little heed of gloves, wool socks or fleece jackets. Our artistic patience was put to the test that morning.
Then as the Creator painted the morning sky in a hue that I couldn’t resist, I found the image that would become BONNIEBROOK SUNRISE. A simple painting really, it harkens back to my earliest times of painting in this style and technique. Yet its simplicity is what I find endearing to me. I can almost feel the sharp, chilled morning air whenever I take time to simply enjoy what I have created in this painting.
Perhaps more interesting though is the fact that this painting should almost be viewed at the same time as one views my painting MOONSHADOW. You see, when I finished taking the photograph for this painting I merely turned one hundred and eighty degrees and faced the darkness. It was there and immediately then that I snapped the image that would also become a painting that nobody would guess was taken at the same time and place as the other. I had found both paintings as I’d stood in that seam between day and night. I had put myself in the perfect place at the perfect time in my search for a BONNIEBROOK SUNRISE.
