Mixed Media Sea Scape Painting

A few months ago I was asked to do this commissioned painting.

This sketch was my brief along with a guided dimension and apart from that I was given full artistic license

I knew I wanted this piece to be 3 dimensional and heavily textured, with the sun lifted from the surface, the roofs sticking out and the landscape protruding!

[the sun was moulded using clay then baked and painted.]

The foundation of the canvas was covered with over 16 layers of vintage musical note paper. My experience of being at the seaside is always a musical one...listening to the waves and seagulls. Nature has it's own wonderful rhythm and I really wanted to carry that essence through the painting

This was the original painting I which  inspired  my client to commission a similar  and larger piece.

It is important for me to challenge myself and not be a comfortable place creatively. I used to always do a  blended and smooth sky but since learning from an Art Master ( twice a month for an hour) I felt I wanted to change the skyline and the sea to give more life to the painting ..as you can see from the finished piece!

Applying the various stones was a delightful experience. It looked amazing, adding lots of texture and light to the painting but when I placed the beach houses it did not fit well on the stones, so I had to sculpt the houses and add more stones. Once I added more stones (which I brought in Bavaria) the landscape felt off, so I painted it several times with various shades of earthy tones to get the colour I was finally happy with. I used lots of gold, silver, copper and  bronze to add more texture and life.
It would have worked better if I painted the houses on but I really wanted to make a feature of it with little roofs. If  I am to do a similar piece again I will do a few things differently, using other mediums. But that is the game as an artist, every piece is prototype.

 All in all this painting took me on a wonderful creative journey, applying new techniques and mediums. This piece has been the object of my affection for the past few months and will be off to it's owner soon..where I hope it brings many smiles and joy to within new home. It is difficult to not be connected to paintings like this when I have spent many many hours creating, I will miss it very much. So have a wonderful day and week until next time. Chelsea