When a painting takes 3 years to shape up

Seascapes 51: week 23 (after a hiatus)

Hats off: this week's textured seascape creation had many iterations over 3 years before I proclaimed it done. And then it surprised me one more time ... 

Version 1 (below) was created in 2021 when I still lived in Reading. It received some love on social media. But it wasn't gelling for me. I liked the texture but it felt more like a moonscape than a seascape to me. The oil paint didn't convey a sense of water. At the time, I was working on a trio of square seascapes in acrylic. These had resolved themselves into an evocative set. So I kept this oil painting aside, determined to wrestle into shape at some point.

Eventually in 2022, now in Yorkshire, I gave it some more tlc. I added many layers to it before Version 2 (below) emerged. In fact, I added some and sanded back others and added more. I liked the incidental man in the blue hat who emerged on the right-hand-side of the painting. He reminded me of a storybook character. Also in its favour, Version 2 had more depth than its predecessor. Yet, it still felt heavy-handed to me. I relegated it to the corner of the studio, not sure what to do with it.

Eventually, more than a year later, I brought out the sandpaper again and added new layers. Once these had dried,I decided it was about as good as it would get. I varnished it. It was still intended as a landscape orientation painting at this point. I brought it downstairs and it found a temporary home on the piano.  

And then, voila, I was working on my laptop and noted that I had placed it on its side to save space. The magic realisation. This composition worked in portrait. Job done.

Hats off is available (at the time of writing) from my Land & sea collection. You can display it any orientation that works for you.