EVENING AT CHINCOTEAGUE

I live reasonably close to the Eastern Shore and am able to travel there often. The area is busy with wildlife, especially birds and this is one of the major attractions for me. I have spent many hours watching eagles, shorebirds and the scores of geese that make this place their home. I prefer fall and winter when there is an influx of birds seeking a safe wintering area and I can find a quiet place to watch and to paint. A lot of my landscape paintings have come from my time spent there and 'Evening at Chincoteague' was one of them. Although the grass in this scene still retains some green of summer, the time is late fall and the water in the flooded field has frozen after a cold snap. The evening light is subdued since the sun has already set but light from the sky is reflected in the strip of distant water and also on the thin ice. The somewhat abstract patterns of the ice amongst the darkened field are what first attracted me to the scene. And I remember coots slipping and sliding somewhat comically along the ice nearby as I worked on this painting as scores of snow geese spiraled down to their evening roost site in the larger lake off to my left. It was an evening worthy of remembrance and these sights and sounds were the inspiration behind the painting. The watercolor is 11" x 7".