A bigger picture, a bigger message.

I am painting my largest canvas to date!  120cm x 100cm.  Having put the initial washes on outdoors, I have been working in acrylics, building up colour to give the painting depth. I often get a virtual painting in my head, inspired by a photograph I have taken.  This virtual image is of  the sea on a windy day looking down a very steep sheer drop into the sea.  It suits the theme of Mordros , “the sound of sea” very well as the waves crash against the cliff and the wind almost draws you over the edge as it eddies around the cliff edge.  This bigger picture will give a bigger message as you are enveloped in the expansiveness and depth of the sea with the wind around you.

Below are three taster sections of the painting measuring approx 30cm x25cm

   

 

 

 

This throws up various challenges as I try and convey the wind and movement of the sea in a larger scale.  Being such a large canvas, I have had to move it from the easel where I can barely reach the top, to the floor and even outside. Anyone who thought painting was relaxing…. well it can be…. unless you are painting such a large piece!  From straddling the corners to moving away from it the whole length of the hall to get a perspective on it,  Having created the dark areas I am not concentrating on bringing the light back into it and using oils which have greater weight and light reflective qualities. But enough for today.  I am sitting on the sofa writing this with a glass of red wine and bed is beckoning me.

But… I can’t wait to get up tomorrow morning and get going again.!!  I am finding that I get my best ideas when I first wake up, so after a quick cup of tea I will get going straight away as I am finding  the early morning  the most productive. It has helped my painting practice that I am working towards an exhibition and this one should just be dry enough to be hung, but I am finding it increasingly obsessive, wanting to go back to it frequently to move it forward as I get inspiration for colour and how to convey movement. It’s like a lost friend who is in need of a direction.

 

How to inspire a 7yr old to create their own seascape?

An email from a teacher sparked some thought from me on how to inspire a 7 year old to create their own seascape . Teacher and pupil  have been looking at several cornish artists for ideas and inspiration.  These might provide a starting point, but I wanted to provide them with words of encouragement to guide them through the creative process.  Because often it is all about the process.  Often the end result is very different from the first imagined idea.  For a painting to be magical, individual and feel worthy, you have to be focused and give something of yourself to it.  So…..

There are no rules.  Don’t confine yourself to convention or what you think it should be like.  Have no expectation of what it will be like.

Choose colour and make marks instinctively.

You can make no mistakes.  Don’t judge your painting or let others criticise it.  Keep going with it even when you feel like giving up.  If you feel stuck and don’t know where to go next, step back and feel excited about the next move.  Make it instinctively .   I can promise you won’t regret it.

Happy painting peeps!!

 

 

 

Colours of Winter

I have framed the first of my paintings for the forthcoming exhibition, so here is a sneak preview.

The unseasonally warm sunshine has pulled the landscape out of winter and truly into spring and summer.  Leaves are on the trees, the gorse is in flower and everything looks fresh and lovely.

But…. I love the colours of Winter.  If you truly look at your landscape, far more colour is there to be seen than you think.  The low sun softens the shadows and reflected light warms the greys. The sea in winter can be very grey, but on a sunny day warms to cerulean, one of my favourite blues.

The gorse in contrast has no flower and some no leaf either as it has been battered by the Atlantic winds.  It is a tangled mass of grey and brown which in the sunlight give an overall pinky purply hue.

 

 

Go for it!

I am painting my largest canvas to date 100cm square.  It requires a large brush and lot of bravery to get the first paint down.  I had an idea in mind and like to paint my underpainting loosely.  This gives me a feel for it and I love what the paint does sometimes when very wet, running into other colours and creating great effects which I try to preserve leaving them to show through subsequent layers.   Cobalt blue for summer skies was applied liberally. My first intention was to paint a distant seascape looking over a cornish hedge, but when dry I viewed it from different angles and a different painting completely was coming to me.  I have ended up turning it upside down as lovely foamy waves started to appear.  So it is going to be a large seascape with the tide running up the beach.  I will leave it to your imagination at the moment as all will be revealed in due course.