Bigger Painting Revealed

In May, I posted three small thumbnail sections of a large painting I was in the process of completing. It sparked some interest and now is the time to reveal the finished painting. I wish I had taken stage paintings to show how the painting evolved and changed, but I didn’t, so hope that the following description gives a little insight into the process.

A blank white canvas measuring 120 cm x 90cm stared up at me as I lay it on the decking outside. I had been looking forward to the challenge and waited for a settled day to be able to put the first paint on in broad loose strokes outside to get the feel of the energy of the sea.

Once dried, I knew I wanted to try and depict the wind on the sea seen from the full height of the North Cornish Cliffs. We often get windy conditions even in summer. Being exposed to the full force of the winds off the Atlantic, the sea swirls around the foot of the cliffs, pushing you in all directions as it eddys around the cliff edge tempting to pull you over.

The painting took about three weeks to complete. The sea needed deep perspective whilst the cliff sitting next to it two dimensionally on the canvas needed more detail. Dilema! The whole picture needed lots of layering of tonal colour to give depth to the sea, depth and tanglement to the foreground and solidity to the cliff face.

I have been increasingly interested in playing around with conventional composition and the viewpoint of this piece was challenging, but think it fully conveyed that feeling of standing high on the cornish coast looking down at the sea, everything blown out by the strength of a summer wind…. a Cornish Mistral

Cornish Mistral. 120cm x 90 mixed media on deep canvas