My friend and Richmond neighbor, Becky Van Brackle, asked that I visit her home in the Bon Harbor neighborhood on the Yeocomico River, which is just off the Potomac River in the Northern Neck of Virginia. She was interested in a painting of her home but more precisely the view from her lawn looking down the river.

I drove to Bon Harbor where Becky was spending most of her summer and we walked about the property. The views were magnificent from many vantage points and she explained to me how the Native American Indians left oyster shell piles called “shell middens” on the property. Their village was clearly nearby – the vast Powhatan Confederacy inhabited most of tidewater Virginia.

We chose a view from a high area on her lawn looking down the river with the wharf on Mundy Point across the water. We decided that her pier would be seen on the far right of the painting… and then we had a great idea! I should include Becky and her friend Dudley Purdy down by the water near his classic Boston Whaler 22’. I did a sketch with a large tree bisecting the composition but it was quickly dismissed and a more traditional arrangement was created before beginning the oil-see images below.

Dudley and Becky were schoolmates years before and met again at their 50^th college reunion and have since become quite close. I made photos of the two without Dudley’s knowledge and did the painting with the afternoon sun glinting across the water. And that’s what I painted- “a moment in life when two souls find togetherness in a beautiful setting.”

Fall 2015
Oil on Linen 10” x 16” Overall Framed 16″ x 22″