Sea air and a change of scenery

It's been a while since I've had a painting that I've been happy about to show you. But I've just finished one that I'm really pleased with.

The idea was to paint a simple seascape. But as in all things simple, it doesn't seem to stay that way!

I wanted to show the scene of two people walking on a beach, perhaps collecting shells or just enjoying the companionship of an amble in the sea air. But they were of lesser importance than the landscape and of the weather. I wanted to show the sea and sky almost as one, merging into each other. And I wanted to paint a picture depicting the scudding clouds forming for a storm in the distance, where the sea is starting to raise with the wind, and where the afternoon sun colours the clouds orange and yellow, a beautiful contrast to the blues and greens of the sea.

And this is what I painted with that idea in mind. The watercolours add to the clearness of the day and the light sea air, but they also are of enough depth of colour to show the darks of the forboding clouds and the shadows on the sea.

I love the way the light changes within the picture and the way the sunlight catches the far horizon but loses itself in the far light as well. I love the soft edges of the clouds, but I also love the way the waves flow onto the beach, the foam merging with the wet sand.

And now, I just want to go and walk on that beach. I can feeeel the sea air, and smell the salty breeze.

Oh, and the title? It's called "Breath of fresh air"

Hiding naughtiness

I've always loved clever paintings, the sort where something is hidden within the image and at first glance it seems like an innocuous painting, but then you realise there's actually a clever depiction of something which puts a whole new twist on what you're looking at. And it's even better if some people see it, and others don't. It makes it more fun, and amuses and entertains the one's who do see it. I suppose you'd call the images surreal - that half reality, half dream like state of putting diverse subjects together that normally wouldn't be.

I also like painting landscapes and hiding something within the contours of the painting. I did this oil painting for myself a few years ago, and still get a lot of pleasure looking at it - the dramatic moon lit sky, the parting clouds, crashing waves, sandy beach and rocky headland........ Oh, and the naked woman!

Recently, I've been asked if I'd be able to paint a landscape with an underlying erotic theme - the sort where adults would see the erotica, but young children wouldn't. It's an interesting proposition for me - the sort of thing I adore painting. But..... how to hide the erotica is the tricky part - whether to use the entwined bodies as the landscape itself, making the hills and valleys with the odd bush sprouting up in prominent places! Or just to paint the landscape but have the erotic couples hidden amongst the writhing trunks of gnarled tree trunks, or secreted amongst the fast flowing waters of a stream, lovers entwined together in the craggy crevices of rocks and lichen covered rocky outcrops or just hinted at amongst the greenery of shrubs and foliage. The ideas are endless...... and exciting!

I know I'd get great satisfaction out of doing it - and hope that others would out of seeing it.

Next Step

Almost done on my new website, just fine tuning really and tidying up the loose ends. Then when its live, I can get back into proper painting.

Last weekend I did a painting of a moody and dramatic seascape in oils, which is still drying in my studio and filling it with the gorgeous aroma of oil paint and turps. Its always an inspiration to paint when that smell is in the nostrils! I'm really pleased with the way the painting went, with the waves crashing up over the partly submerged rocks in the foreground and drenching them in foam and spray, with a dark and menacing sky above, and a dark forbidding sea on the horizon. The whole thing was painted in just three colours - Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White over an acrylic under-painting of Indian Red. The purpose of under-painting it is to give more depth of colour to the finished painting, but also because of the Indian Red colour, its given the painting a subtle pinky glow to it, which adds to the moody blues and browns of the oils, giving it more shades of colour and adding more interest. I'm pleased with the result although it'll take me a while to think of a title for it.

Lucy Felthouse is wanting some more erotic images for her Fantasy Nuggets blogspot, so I want to get on and do those for her. Plus I want to do some sexy images of male couples for my website.