Sunken Treasure

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Sunken Treasure
Although most of my paintings start out with words on the canvas, and a theme already in mind, this painting is different.  

36" x 12"
Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas
Edges painted black

Last summer when my Beloved Husband went to Paraguay for a mission trip, I had grand ideas of how many paintings I would accomplish while he was gone. I prepped about ten surfaces, and was ready to make lots of painting progress during those 12ish days. As you may recall if you were following along with me at that time, my “muse” evidently went to South America with my Beloved Husband, and those canvases did not get finished! But a few got a starting layer, and this one started with a fairly simple wash of acrylic paint in a color I like. 

Often as I work on a painting, there will be many layers that I do not like. (I have a large canvas in progress right now that is at one of those ugly stages.) On Sunken Treasure, I liked each stage of this work, and I chose to respond intuitively to the paint, adding structure and accents as they were needed along the way. The vertical design was one of the earliest layers, and it helped me “see what the painting wanted” to have the composition already in order. 

When it came time to title the work, I was really struggling. I love what I am seeing, and it carries memories and wishes, but I needed a little more help. My son said it reminds him of the green water near the Florida Keys, and the title and concept started to gel in my mind. I realized that I have been painting about sunshine and warm weather, deep sea fishing and our children swimming in Caribbean waters, and the “sunken treasure” of all these memories. 

Psalm 37:3-5
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

We are in a particularly intense stage of our lives right now, and I find joy and peace in remembering these different vacation times when our kids were still living at home with us. In some respects, the memories seem even sweeter than the original adventures! 

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