Dive in with me for the third weekly wade through my seascape paintings. The self-initiated mission is to share 52 sets of reflections on old, new and in-progress creations throughout 2024. This week is all about texture.
The textured trio
This seascape trio is one of my most distinct seascape series. Although I've blogged about them before, I'm dipping my toes back into this trio as I've recently been revisiting square formats. In fact, there are two new sets of seascape trios busy drying in the studio.
Plus, I'm pleased to announce that these three seascapes are going to be on show at Otley's Jac51 salon. Thanks, Paula, for hosting a mini display!
The inspiration
This trio was begun in 2021, fuelled by visits to West Wittering on the Sussex coast. I wanted to capture the feeling of the sea breeze, sand and water on my soul. It's as much an abstract exploration of the emotive possibilities of texture as it is figurative memory of watching and feeling the interplay of tide and sand.
^ Ocean caress
The composition
The triptych is designed to hang horizontally or vertically and in any order you prefer. The movement across the panels is part of the story. Change the juxtaposition and mix-up the mood of the sea. There is an intended way up, though.
In visual theory, squares are very static shapes. I love the way the movement in the composition is strong enough to make these feel full of energy, even though they are square in format.
^ Sinking toes
The media
This mixed media seascape trio is unusual as most of my seascapes are oil paintings. It's also much more textured than most of my acrylic creations. The result of lots and lots of layers and oodles more patience
Oil paint typically has more body than acrylic. Even when I add texture paste to acrylic, I'm always disappointed how much flatter the layers are when they dry. For this trio, I was less concerned with achieving dimensionality and more interested in capturing the contrast between the grittiness of the sand and the swirling tide through mark-making. In this respect, the faster drying acrylic works because the integrity of the mark is less likely to be disrupted by the next layer. Plus, the transparency of acrylic is great for water so was a good choice here. I've also added some gloss gel to heighten the transparency and texture in places. Win, win.
It's good to remind myself to consider acrylic for seascapes. Now that I'm comfortable working plein air with a homemade stay-wet palette, I reckon some plein air seascapes should be on the cards when the weather warms up.
^ Wash away my fears
The paintings in this blog post are available to buy (at the time of writing) in my Land & sea collection.
Hope you enjoyed the read and will join me again next week for the fourth seascape instalment.