Making ocean art is a tricky business. The light, awe, expansiveness is so difficult to paint, photograph or sculpt without seeming corny, trite, cliche.
So, I have very little of it. I appreciate the efforts to capture the ocean, but very little of it holds me for very long. Shells or bones, pieces of driftwood and stones are more likely to displayed in my gallery.
There are a few painters I seek out. It's hard to say why it is or how they do it.
But after speaking with Ran Ortner at length, I now understand that it has to do with the many layers of paint. Leaving room for movement, for my brain to fill in. That pull between melancholy and wonder. Somehow creating the illusion that light is coming from inside, as the ocean does.
Perhaps it's no wonder that the first translation of Blue MInd is to Russian.
