Scaling Up

For the past few weeks I've been working on this painting. It's based on several en Plein Air studies I've been doing this winter down on the coast. Wave studies are a great way to capture movement and light in a quick loose style.

The trick is to keep that feeling when I scale up in studio. Obviously composition can be played around with and that is worked out in the under drawing which I usually do in brown acrylic ink for fast drying. The urge to "fix" things when I get painting is my nemisis. I'm a fiddler and I have to be really strict with myself in order to keep that fluidity of the studies. I lay down the colour with lots of medium and my large pallette knives to keep it moving and then refine it with the largest brushes I can, keeping the small details and spatter for the highlights. At some point you have to say STOP!!!

The process shots show the evolution of the work as it progressed over a number of days.

The painting is waiting for varnishing now and framing and the plan is to have it as part of an exhibition scheduled for Dublin next year so stay posted for details of that in 2020 📢