Antler X marks the spot

Here is a painting- 19 x 26 inches, done, again, during a snow storm and again with one brush. The short round #4. Hmmmm.

I have a snug little place in the basement...a short and relatively safe commute. With a little pre-planning, I was able to spend a good chunk of time painting... almost 6 hours while the sauce and meatballs simmered on the stove upstairs. 

The sensuousness of the curves and the windows between the antlers seem potent reminders of treasures in my life. The scene is an abstraction of the Strauss marsh and the island lot. Does the antler's "X" mark last summer's exercise with my sister, or a memorable moment when I felt myself falling in love, or a search for a sighting of the rare trumpeter swan, or the abundant crop harvested by the neighbor, or the ancestral spot for picnics deep under the oaks, or my brothers hairy trek across the ice with his daughter, or the site of a leaning cow and a faulty fence-post, or... the list is as deep as the number of my years combined with unbridled imagination as well as with the memories  of my ancestors.

Since it was from memory the light is not quiet right... I struggled with what should be dark, and what should be light, the edges of the antlers versus the busy-ness of the background. I think the next painting, which I have already started, will be simpler in detail. I must plug on.