Introduction
The sunset lights up the western sky in this painting by renowned landscape artist Sydney Laurence. Here the artist has painted a scene of a recognizable place. This is Cook Inlet near Anchorage , Alaska with Mount Susitna in the background.

While this painting is of an actual place, the artist has changed it slightly in order to make it more dramatic and inspiring. As people from this area are very aware, boats are not usually moored on the beaches in Cook Inlet because of the abundance of quicksand there. If there were a boat on the beach at Cook Inlet, it would most likely be a wreck that was washed up in a storm and not one that was currently being used.

Why do you think the artist might have chosen to put footprints and a functional looking boat in a landscape where normally nobody walks or moors their boats? Note where your eyes are drawn to in this painting and how the footprints and the boat seem small in contrast to the big, beautiful landscape around them. If you were standing next to this boat, would you feel small or big inside this painting?