Before Color — Ossabaw Island, John Gholson

31°47′40″N · 81°6′44″W · Ossabaw Island, Georgia

BEFORE COLOR

Oil on Canvas — Painted on Location

Medium Oil on Canvas
Location Ossabaw Island, Georgia
Artist John Gholson
Period circa 2008–2013

The marsh before the sun clears the treeline. Grays and pale blues and the suggestion of form. The island in this light feels like a working memory — not quite solid, still being decided. The cordgrass registers as dark strokes. The creek as pale reflection. The distant treeline as the boundary between what is known and what the light has not reached yet. Sculptor Harry Bertoia was here. He made sound. This painting is close to silence.