Stars All the Way Down

This piece began with an experiment. Lately I’ve been working in layers—starting with watercolor, letting it bleed and wander, then gradually introducing more acrylic and medium as the painting develops. The surface becomes something different than either material alone: transparent in places, dense in others, with light appearing to emerge from beneath the paint rather than sitting on top of it. For this painting I tried something new: compressed charcoal worked into the horizon line. Most of it has softened and disappeared into later layers, but I think that’s part of what gives the dividing line of the piece its weight. The charcoal remains like a memory beneath the paint. As the painting developed, it began to feel less like a landscape and more like a threshold. A warm golden sky rises above a dark band of sea, while deep aqua and mineral greens stretch downward into what could be water, shadow, or simply depth itself. The title arrived midway through the process. A few…