The wind blows over Fraser river

I walked up and down the river bank looking for a grand wide view that shows the expanse of the river, but I didn't find it, so I went back to where I started and did this. Sight-sizing has its limit. What you include in your frame is limited to the size of your canvas, and how close you are to the painting. In a comfortable painting position with a standard plein air canvas size, you get a pretty narrow field of view. But there are too many pluses with sight-sizing for me at the moment to give it up.

The wind blows over Fraser river - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

One of the reasons I like to paint is how everything is suggested, unless one is painting photoreal. Our eyes try very hard to construct an image with whatever clues we are given.
Here is a bunch of black patches that form an image. It's not hard for us to see that it's a picture of an Dalmatian.

Our eyes have such an ability to connect edges, sorting patterns and connecting masses, to try to construct a recognizable image. A lot of the times I find myself staring at the tiles on the floor such as this one, and see human faces on them.

Back to this painting, just a couple strokes of lighter blue across the water, with a couple vertical lines through them, and all of a sudden they register as smooth patches of water with the reflection of the poles.