‘Distant Shores’
is a blue, gold and black abstract with an ocean-inspired theme
160cm x 100cm (63″ x 39″)
160cm x 100cm (63″ x 39″)
Distant Shores is a large contemporary painting created with my incredible enamel paints and featuring Swarez Blue (my own colour), shimmering metallic gold and hints of black, white and French blue.
I painted this in a series of horizontal bands (or vertical if you decide to hang it in portrait orientation) and then let the canvas rest so that the paint could find its own levels. As I paint flat in the floor I have the advantage of using gravity (and a slightly uneven floor!) to help move and shape paint into the directions and effects I am after.
As with so many things in life, finding the right balance is critical. In this painting that pressure falls firmly on the shoulders of the black paint. Without the darker element this piece would lose some of its gravitas and grounding. Black also helps you to define the other colours too so the use of light and dark tones is imperative in so many things – you need one to see the other and vice versa.
Historically, I have always found the combination of blue and black an exciting one but always had to be very careful on placement and volume – too much or too little and you’ve had it. Game over.
Fortunately though, being a well practiced exponent of paint mixing and applying, I don’t have that issue anymore and can interject such a dense and rich black into my work in just the right places and just the right amounts. In this painting it weaves itself through the top and bottom and also from one side to the other. But it’s never dominant or overbearing; it’s just enough to settle the ye and let the other tones run free.
So, after establishing that this is a perfectly balanced painting composed of coloured bands we can now go in a little further and look at the details. Let me say right now that there are a lot of them! And that’s great because it means you’ll always be discovering something new to look at no matter how long you stare at it for.
I have multiple techniques on the go at any one time here – there are cells and tiny flows as well as fractal-like forms and peaks and troughs. We have an abundance of texture where the paint is either high or low (in volume) plus a myriad of tiny tonal blends to boot!
And yes, as the name would suggest, it has a shore/ocean/beach inspired theme to it as you have probably worked out by now. Now, whilst I don’t go out of my way to try and suggest subject matter, I am human and I am influenced by the world around me so inevitably i will revert to using that as a reason to create. The result of that, when it all goes well, is a painting like Distant Shores.