Marshlight Rising - Ripley - 24x20” Original Painting

Marshlight Rising - Ripley - Forms of Feeling Series, No. 2
Original Mixed Media (Oil and Acrylic) on Canvas
24x20” gallery canvas
Unframed - $480
Marshlight Rising is a painting that almost didn’t happen, and I’m glad I didn’t force it.
In my Forms of Feeling series, Marshlight Rising embodies Becoming , that quiet moment when something inside us stirs, takes shape, and rises into view.
I originally began this piece for the Florida Palette challenge, but it just would not fully come to life. I reached that familiar point where the idea is clear in my head, yet the canvas stays stubbornly quiet. So I let it rest. Instead of pushing through and muddying it, I started fresh, and that new burst of momentum became Tango at Twilight.
Later, I came back to Ripley with new energy and a different plan. The breakthrough was simple but game-changing: I stopped trying to “paint it right” and started building it boldly. Palette knives and thick impasto brushwork became the key, letting the surface do what the concept needed. Ripley’s form could finally rise out of the marsh water the way I envisioned, with the tail and hind legs morphing into flowing, abstract current, and the whole scene glowing in that soft sunset light.
This piece is about transformation, persistence, and trusting the pause. Sometimes stepping away is not quitting, it’s gathering the missing ingredient.
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About the Forms of Feeling Series
Forms of Feeling is an ongoing collection of abstract realism paintings that give visual shape to intangible elements — like Emotion, Harmony, Wonder, and more. Rather than representing the classical elements, each piece in this series expresses a feeling through color, character, and brushwork.
This series is rooted in curiosity, intuition, and the joy of discovery. Each painting blends expressive abstraction with representational realism, allowing characters and moments to emerge naturally through the process. These are not just scenes — they are feelings made visible.