12" x 12 Oil Painting "Above and Below" by Mark Nesmith and the separation of Heaven and earth

Above and Below
by Mark Nesmith
Oil on Canvas
12" x 12"
2015

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This 12" x 12" oil painting was inspired by the Neches River near Beaumont, TX. I painted this over a couple of afternoons while I was on Spring Break. Originally I was thinking of it as a kind of counter balance to the intensity of a painting of the Neches titled "The Burning Down" that I had painted a couple of weeks before. This one started as a calmer almost mirror image of the composition of the first, but as I worked those vivid oranges insisted on pressing forward, overtaking the distant shore and the reflected light in the water. Meanwhile the trees in the distance struggle to maintain the slightest separation between the sky and the earth.