When the pandemic became public knowledge, I was like many people, having difficulty fathoming the reality. I didn’t know what to do, so I did what I do best, paint, and write. Strangely, for the first few months, I felt calm and remain fairly so. It was time to focus.

“Moored in the Mist” is the second painting I created in the early months of the pandemic.

The painting is a commission for a gentleman who brought me a beautiful but very damaged photograph he’d taken 30 years ago of a favorite place that he hoped I could recreate.

The photo spoke to me and it fit my mood. Light shining through a heavy mist that shrouded almost everything in the scene.

Painting slowly, thin glaze after thin glaze, allowing each to dry between coats, I established the trees and weeds and boat in fine detail, and when those were dry started bringing in the mist. I shut out thoughts of what was happening around us, to me, my gallery, the world, and as I worked became one with a small fish pond in the hills of Pennsylvania.

I wanted the painting to glow, to draw your eyes to the light. While I sought to be true to the gentleman’s photo and memories, I focused on the sun burning through the mist, lighting the boat’s bow and blossoms on the foreground weeds.

I found it symbolic of the time.

Keeping our eyes on the light, pointing our bows in the right direction, we will come through this.