Remembering late night drives from Austin up to the Texas Panhandle almost fifty years ago, when it seemed the only sign of "civilization" for long stretches was a wisp of light in the corner of my eye now and then, tracing a faint line between earth and sky where people on the way at one time or another had a mind to stay, and others joined them...
That image came to mind the first time I encountered the poem by San Juan de la Cruz that begins with the phrase I've used for the title. What caught my eye then (when I was living in Austin) as it does now was how those wisps of light came and went while the night remained and was my guide (an image that appears later in the poem) on those journeys home.
As is my habit, I used four pigments (a blue, a red, a yellow, and a white) for this painting done with brush and palette knife on unprimed birch panel. There is a rainbow in this noche oscura, and I believe the grain of the wood helps bring it to life.
- Subject Matter: abstract
- Created: December 2020
- Collections: abstracts, acrylic, landscapes