Out to Sea 2014 (Oil on Canvas - 240cm by 180cm)

 

This final large scale piece that I produced, in terms of scale, I was thinking more about what might go up for the degree show, at this stage, and I envisaged that I’d have the piece ‘The Blue Elephant In The Natural’ on display. So I wanted to prepare another canvas of the same size, so that if it did get presented, there would be another to balance the wall out and create a clean and crisp presentation, so the size followed the same suit at 240cm x 180cm.

 

In terms of the visual that I chose to represent, I wanted one of the onsite images that would complement the height of the canvas, that I wouldn’t struggle with making larger and extending the proportions of the features.

 

I searched through my smaller pieces and found the one titled ‘Out To Sea’ I thought that the characteristic of the piece related to the scale of the painting, the dunes created the height that I needed, and they framed the sky and the sandy walkway perfectly. I don’t think, at that stage, I could see any other piece fitting the criteria, or having the features that were so appealing at the time and so I decided to progress with it, it was getting closer to when we would be getting the studio’s ready for the degree show, so I needed to be daring and simply progress with it, and see how it developed.

 

In the initial stages of the piece I recognised that I was spending too much time observing the miniature piece and that there wasn’t the spontaneity occurring that I had on previous pieces and so once the structure was in place, I thought less about being specific and particular and just allowed the work to progress more organically.

 

I think throughout the process one of the main areas that I really had to work upon was the integration of each area, the dunes, the sandy beach , the sea and the sky, they all had to unite somehow. I believe that the drips have aided this bond as well as working into the sky, scraping away at it to create more texture and variety in terms of marks, furthermore larger splatters of colour within the grassy verges and the sky create a collaboration between these areas.