The pig’s nose is a small bluff that juts out of Little Sister Bay, Wisconsin, which is located on the eastern shore of Green Bay, near the tip of Wisconsin’s “thumb”. I’m not sure if it is known to others by that name, but it has iconic status within my family. We spent endless summer days on Little Sister when I was a boy and the pig’s nose was there with us, a part of our lives. While this bluff appears as something different from every angle it is viewed from, the view from our cottage, directly across the bay, turned the bluff into the shape of the nose of a pig.
My painting, “Pig’s Nose”, was done for my sister as an anniversary gift for her husband. It is based on a series of photographs I had taken in late spring of 2009, from the approximate spot of where my family vacationed when I was young. It was my good fortune to have chosen a day to photograph that grew into an incredible evening with a glorious sunset; so often the case in that magical land of Door County.
The pig’s nose lay seemingly suspended over the calm water of the bay while bowing to the sun’s retreat. The colors of this sunset seemed almost surreal, their complexity daunting against the stark light of the bluff. The contrast of the two gave me a sense of serenity. Because of its familiarity and significance to my family, this scene is perhaps my favorite painting.
The project of painting the “Pig’s Nose” lasted one and a half months. It is a 24 x 36″ oil on canvass. In order to capture the stunning colors of the sunset I first toned the canvass with a thin mixture of cadmium yellow medium and yellow ochre, a hue that peaks through the sky and water and helps unify the color of the composition. The brilliant hues along the horizon resulted from application of a glaze of cadmium red medium over the toned ground. I was experimenting with this combination initially, but once I saw the blaze of color that resulted I felt I found a way to approach and mimic the brightest sections of the sunset.
So, I feel good about the results of this painting. It is special to me and humbling to have captured an image of the fleeting moments of that day I spent alone with the pig’s nose on Little Sister Bay.