image and original painting courtesy of Galen Mercer.
‘A Permit Flat, Key West’
Oil on Canvas
30″ x 36″
2014
“A painting I worked on for months after returning from the Keys. It conveys several favorite qualities of that experience; the shifting colors and light on the ocean floor and the tenuous appearance of fish on the periphery of detection. The school of permit, entering at top right, exists only as a glinting mass rather than individuals. Gil Drake, one of the real legends of Keys fishing, said sometimes all you can make out of permit at a distance is the flashing pink of their lips. I wanted to suggest what an active cosmos a saltwater flat is, hence the bull shark sweeping lazily past at lower right.” – Galen Mercer
for more of Galen’s work please click here!
flies, sand & surf 