New Daily Oil Painting "Blaze"

Blaze 

Mark Nesmith

Oil on canvas

8" x 10"

2014

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Rice is a part of life in Southeast Texas.  Anyone who has spent anytime at all here is familiar with the rice mills that dot the skyline throughout towns like Beaumont, and the flooded rice fields along IH-10 and other roads are as much a part of our landscape as the tall pine trees.  Doguet's Rice is a household name in most homes here, and the Winnie Rice Festival rivals the state fair and has been an annual tradition since 1969.


I've always loved the shallow, flooded fields of rice with their subtle tree lines in the distance.  The shallow, still water makes for beautiful, soft reflections in the daylight, and transforms into a fiery pool of burning sky during sunset.  With barely any separation between the earth and sky it seems like they melt into each other and the whole world is a blaze of color.


This is an 8" x 10" oil painting on canvas I completed in a quick surge of painting.  It was painted alla prima with just a quick outline sketch in pencil to start.  With very little detail, I was able to focus on the intense sky spilling over into the flooded rice fields.  I plan to do several more and hope to flesh out a few larger canvases soon.