Painting Portheras

Painting Portheras in detail

This painting came about as a potential study of contrast in the form - “fat” and “thin” paint.

I have struggled in the past with scouting for painting ideas on glorious sunny days, feeling like there is no adversity to push against or lean on. Though looking at the rocks that loom and skirt down to Portheras Beach I was reminded that the brighter the day the darker the shadows. So it was to be a painting of contrasts.

I set out to have the sand a thinned layer of oil (actually more like a tinted layer of white spirit) and then in contrast the heavy dark shadows of the rocks in a “fat” thick oil paint..

I carried on drawing (with black paint) the rock’s shadows forming stencil like shapes of black over the various tones of earth colours. I found that these rigid shapes lacked the energy that I enjoy from a painting.

So I introduced charcoal, reconfirming the black marks already made but with more energy to these dark spaces, in-turn creating more movement in a lovely rich matte black.

The painting has ended up not just about “thin” and “fat” paint techniques expressing contrast. Its now, to me, about the contrasting energies these different elements guided me to paint, contrasting energies that are fundamental to their form and the way it all comes together - when land meets sea and vice versa..

Portheras, Oil and Charcoal on canvas

120cm x 80cm. Now available for purchase in Online Gallery