Sea Secret is a delightfully relaxed and effortless painting. Its form and shapes reveal an elegance and subtlety to it’s paint applications. I remember painting this piece on a sunny, cloudless day – the air fresh with spring. It’s funny to look back on the circumstances and environmental factors that can affect your work. Sometimes the slightest change can result in a really unusual or unplanned piece of art.
Fortunately none of that affected Sea Secret. I enjoyed producing this piece immensely – right from the initial sketches, through to mixing the colours right up until the last stroke was cast. It doesn’t matter whether this reminds you of the sea or not as we all get different feelings and reactions to art. Suffice to say that my first reaction when I saw it dry was to think of a coral reef, resplendent in all it’s textures, colours and energy. This painting is substantial too, measuring 1220mm x 1220mm. I use only the finest triple primed canvas to protect the paint from falling through the weave. The frame is constructed from seasoned timber bearers and measures approximately 50mm deep.
The basis for this painting is of course the strong green and blue hues. If you look closely you can see that these two colours are split into one third and two thirds respectively. The reason for this was to allow for smaller applications on the green side and larger ones on the blue. I chose this method of equilibrium as a way to produce a balanced painting yet still maintain a sense of depth. If I had split the two main colours evenly I would have unbalanced the painting by using the wide and narrow accent colours – it just wouldn’t have worked out properly. Anyway, what came out was a great painting and one I am especially pleased with.
