Liquid Wings
By Tom Speedy, 2010
Picture a quiet morning on the water, when the sun hangs low and turns everything to gold. That is the feeling Tom Speedy captures in this 2010 painting. A lone rower glides forward, caught in silhouette against a blaze of yellow and orange. The oars stretch out like wings, which gives the work its name, and the whole scene feels both peaceful and full of motion at once.
What makes this piece so striking is the water itself. Speedy paints the surface as a swirl of ripples and reflections, where the rower's shadow stretches and bends in fiery streaks of red and orange. The cooler greens near the bottom keep the warmth from overwhelming the eye. It is a simple subject treated with real care, reminding us how a single figure and a patch of bright water can hold a quiet kind of beauty.