Ebb and Flow

About the painting

Ebb and Flow is a large rectangular abstract painting created with a relaxed and calming palette of colours. The inspiration for this painting lies with the endless roll of the oceans and mile upon mile of sandy beaches. I am a big fan of everything coastal so any opportunity I get to embrace that is fine by me!

The role of colour in any themed painting is crucial as it underpins the basis on which everything else is built. A firm foundation helps to build a great abstract. In this case I chose a more muted palette to suit the gentle nature of long sunny afternoons down on the beach or strolling along the harbour.

A dusky orange and sunset yellow are the highlights for me and these get perfectly complimented by just the right amount of blue. Fused into this we get metallic silver, copper, gold, black and marron – which gets morphed into some spectacular cells that you can see in the close up photos.

The rise and fall

The name seemed wholly appropriate when you consider how I have layered the paint to move backwards and forwards from each side foo the canvas, mirroring the way the oceans also do the same with natural movement of the tides.

Look at the white for example, it moves both from the left and the right, same with the orange and black and yellow etc. This gentle, sympathetic balance is what helps the painting to feel calm and relaxed.

Movement in the painting is not just about the flow between left and right though. There is also a vertical element too, shown by the small upright nuances of paint that have been placed carefully along key points of the canvas. Think of them as boat masts in the harbour if you will – I can almost hear the distant sound rigging blowing in the wind.

Watch the creation

If you want to see exactly how this painting was created then watch the video underneath. It’s the record of every paint stroke from start to finish and was done on one of my live stream broadcasts.