Creativity comes through experimentation and ignorance, the latter glosses over the reality of the effort and experience it truly takes in making something beautiful. My pond now is a sanctuary, a beautiful corner of life and beauty which also serves as an extension of my backyard studio. I have artists attend “studio nights” each Wednesday evening with the pond to paint by. Had I known how wonderful a water feature is, I would have done it 20 years ago! This year, it is maturing… there are midges, may flies and dragon flies for the frogs and tadpoles. The fish are growing (almost 3 times the size of the one image, really) and offering an abundance of new subject matter with the native flowers we have selected in our landscape.

It allows me to experiment with new material and to again put naivety back into the painting process. As Picasso defined artistic quality, he said it took him eighty years to learn to do what he did as a child.

—DIX BAINES