This painting was inspired by Mary Oliver's poem, Morning at Great Pond. The original is nearly 7 feet wide and was painted in a tiny dorm room in college.
It starts like this:
forks of light
slicking up
out of the east,
flying over you,
and what’s left of night–
its black waterfalls,
its craven doubt —
dissolves like gravel
as the sun appears
trailing clouds
of pink and green wool,
igniting the fields,
turning the ponds
to plates of fire.
The creatures there
are dark flickerings
you make out
one by one
as the light lifts —
great blue herons,
wood ducks shaking
their shimmering crests —
and knee-deep
in the purple shallows
a deer drinking:
as she turns
the silver water
crushes like silk,
shaking the sky,
and you’re healed then
from the night, your heart
wants more, you’re ready
to rise and look!
to hurry anywhere!
to believe in everything.
~American Primitive: Poems
by Mary Oliver
Morning on Great Pond, Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 83 inches, 2000
Limited edition canvas giclees are for sale.
