1. About Painter Lynn Mehta
   

2. Lynn Mehta’s below article was first published in Descriptive Eye, a online site developed in a UNC journalism program to explore the connection of the creative process in all arts.  In it, her connection to Cape Carolina is made clear with her connection to the editor. 

   

   
   

Flashing Red on the Pamlico River, Oil on Linen- 24” x 20”

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2. Narrative of Creating the Initial Oil Sketch
   

3. by Lynn Mehta
   

4. The creation of this painting began when I went sailing with my friend, Kirk, on his boat in North Carolina during July 2008.  We sailed from Washington, NC to Ocracoke on a  four-day trip with his son, Aris, and my son, Neel.  My intention was to sail, let the boys have a good time, and not bore everyone while I painted.  I did bring my outdoor painting kit, just in case it was feasible.   We motored out of the marina in the afternoon, and Kirk still needed to put his new jib up. We had to find a safe place out of the wind since I didn’t have the strength to handle the jib in strong winds.  We pulled into the water around Bath to do so.  At any rate, this put us out on the Pamlico River heading toward the Pamlico Sound even later in the day.  We made a decision to sail at night in order to be able to put anchor closer to the Ocracoke.  When the sails were up and we had passed Indian Island, we set course and Neel was able to steer the boat himself.   I decided to paint.
   

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6. The moon was out and there were plenty of clouds moving quickly.  The wind was steady.  I couldn’t see any land, not really, and we were following light from one buoy to the next using charts and GPS.   I had the light from my Mighty Light clipped to my painting box and the boat’s light, but still it was pretty dark.  A planet was out with the moon, which was waxing.  Although there really wasn’t an abundance of light to see to paint, I knew where my colors were on the palette.  I remember looking out into the dark and trying hard to see what was there.  I painted the color of the moon, what was absorbed by clouds, and what color light bounced across the water.  I also painted the next red marker which was what we strained our eyes to see.   And, I painted in the land which I tried to make out, an even darker dark than the sea and sky.
   

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8. Painting at night is interesting.  I don’t have black on my palette, so I have to make the darkness from the colors which are on my palette.  It is all reds and blues and greens put together to make darkness and then yellows and oranges for lights that glow.
   

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10. There was really so much movement: movement of the boat, the sails, the water as it lapped.  There was also so much movement of light as it bounced around on the water and the swift-moving clouds. I tried to capture it all in just a few moments of time.  I had to paint quickly because outside everything changes, nothing holds still.  I tried to capture that instance while I painted.   As I did, the wind picked up, the sails started puffing, and the boat began rolling into and over the waves. I felt as though I had literally thrown my painting onto my small canvas before the time was up.  And, it was up quickly.  Neel yelled for help at the wheel.   And I put my painting box and canvas away.
    

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12. We set anchor a few hours later just off the Sound in the wide open inlet of Rose Bay.  We strained and strained our eyes to see in the darkness for a buoy that was not lit and strained our eyes to see for land.  It was as though blackness was pressing on our eyes.  It was almost as if we had to imagine or invent what we were looking at.  My friend gave me a flashlight to locate day markers. Then, he and Neel set anchor to end the first evening of our journey.
    

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14. When I came back home to Alexandria that weekend, I had six or seven oil paint sketches from the trip.  I liked all my sketches, but, it was the one I painted sailing down the Pamlico River looking for buoys and land, seeing the waxing moon dancing its light everywhere and feeling the movement all around me that demanded my attention.   I had painted an 8” x 10” sketch on the boat, and I decided to paint a 24” x 20” finished oil painting of it. 
    

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17. This oil sketch of the above painting, and seen within this article, will be available available at Mehta’s solo show in Virginia this month, though it can still be seen and selected through our online Ship’s Store along with her other NC nautical landscapes.
    

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19. An Oil Sketch Becomes a Painting
    

20. When I painted from this sketch (I had no photo of the scene) I remembered how everything moved so quickly.
    

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22. I felt the larger painting above had to be created with a large brush, with the same large, quick strokes that I used out on the boat, with the movement of the wind and water all around me.   I remembered straining my eyes to look for land, and so I put that impossibly invisible land in there, too.  And, also, the whirling, waxing moon and the planet are there, too.  I created a juxtaposition of the flashing red buoy and the moon at a diagonal to each other, and used my brush strokes to capture the movement in the air between them.  All the colors were there in my little sketch.  I had captured it all in the darkness out on the boat.  I was able to quickly reach into my memory of the light and darkness and the color that was in the light and the darkness and transfer them to my large canvas.
    

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24. I submitted “Flashing Red on the Pamlico” to The Art League in Alexandria, Virginia for its juried show titled “‘Scapes” in August 2008 and it was accepted.  Every time I see the painting, it brings back to me the moment out on the water, in the darkness, with the movement of the wind and the water all around, sailing from one flashing red buoy to the next.
    

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26. About The Artist and Her Process: Lynn Mehta
    

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    Landscape has been a large part of my life. Growing up in La Jolla, California, I spent my childhood climbing trees, wandering beaches, exploring the canyons of Southern California.  During summers, I would backpack and camp with my family through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and in the local mountains and deserts of San Diego County.  The natural environment was my sustenance; it was my all. 
    

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29. As an artist now living in Northern Virginia, I enjoy finding local green spaces to paint en plein air as well as exploring further abroad when I get the opportunity.  When I create my art I feel connected to the reassurance and spirit that I receive from the landscape.
    

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31. Paint, for me, captures the color of a landscape, which is what I think is its essence. Additionally, I look for shapes and lines that inspire my imagination.  Often, it is lines of tree branches or the shape of a group of rocks that compel me to create my painting.
    

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33. When painting outside I seek to portray how the day and my surroundings feel.  When painting from memory I endeavor to recapture a particular landscape and how it has stirred me.  My goal is to express, through art, my love of the environment.  I strive to do so by depicting its fundamental nature through color, through light, and through each stroke of the brush.
    

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35. Lynn Mehta
    

36. Alexandria, Virginia
    

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39. Mehta’s Website
    

40. Mehta’s Cape Carolina Galleries
    

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