Several days of heavy rain has kept me away from the beach yet I did manage these small things in between squalls the other night.
When I arrived at the beach it didn't look brilliant. I wondered if I could find enough of a clearing in the sky where I could grab and hold on to something long enough to find a few pictorial ideas.
As I unpacked and set up a palette some patches of blue opened up as if I had commanded "OpenSesame!" Faith (or superstition) is the key.
To find a parallel to Rock Climbing would not be imprecise. Arriving at a motif, (in this case the beach and sky) I immediately study the wall of solid clouds above me trying to decipher a point of entry. If it isn't opaque there will be some veins of light running through it and providing colour (hopefully). Without these veins of light there is less of a chance for colour. Alas, no light no colour.
And like the climber, a painter is a child of patience, well, sort of. Without it, one cannot proceed with care, but in failure, a climber has more to lose than a painter. But arriving at the summit both climber and painter feel an enormous relief, a satisfaction too.
Happily, on this night, there was light and colour. The result isn't exactly fireworks but maybe enough subtlety within these harmonies that can lead to new paintings in the near future.
WWB
Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 19 March, 2021, oil on canvas board,
25 X 20 cm
Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 19 March, 2021, oil on canvas board,
25 X 20 cm
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