Looking Back

This week while going through some slides of my old work, I found this painting I did nearly twenty five years ago.  It's reproduced from a photo made from a slide, so the color is not at all accurate.  But it illustrates the idea of "the diminishing repeat." 

This concept is that if foreground details are explained thoroughly, then repeats of the same subject receding in space need fewer and fewer details.  The eye just fills in the missing elements.  By the time you get to the last Indian, there are just dots of color which you assume are horses and braves.
You can do this with boats or people or almost anything that comes in groups.