Acrylic seascapes:

It has been a very long time since I have used acrylics in my work. I started off with acrylics when I was first exploring art quickly moved on to different processes, so I really wanted to delve into them again and see if I could improve my skills. 

I first started by painting a sea scape based on one of the photographs that I took while down in Devon. One of the things that I found the hardest during this process was the colour mixing and trying to replicate the right shades and tones. I think that I'll have to look into colour theory again to try and refresh my memory and refine my skills. I am quite happy with the outcome of this first painting, it's relatively neat and picturesque. I love the contrast between dark, brooding sky and the warm, inviting sunset. They are parallels that I think invoke conflicting feelings of happiness and melancholy and I find it interesting how the sunset seems to be wedged in-between the dark sky and equally dark sea. It's as if the darkness is closing in, trying to cage the warmth and happiness of the sun. I believe that the way the beach curves and bends is fluid and compliments the flow of the estuary in the lower half of the work. I think that it provides this loose and changeable quality to the painting that contrasts the more rigid atmosphere of the top half of the painting. 

I am really happy with the way that this painting has turned out. I didn't use an image reference and wanted to challenge myself by creating something from memory instead. at first I had a mixture of lighter and darker blues as the background but something felt off and I just didn't like it. I thought that I seemed boring and I wanted there to be something that would draw attention. Eventually I added some white into the corner of the image and I liked the way it looked so I continued to add these dots of white in curved motions across the page. I then slowly blended it out to create he imagery of sea foam and waves. I really love the contrast and texture that I visible within my work, the white clashes with the darker blue to create the striking stripes and I think that the paint has this slight patchy aspect to it that replicates sea foam really well. I believe that the is a real sense of movement within this work and the more I look at it the more that is seems as is the waves are actually moving back and forth. The dark blue is vibrant and deep and I think that this particular tone feels inviting and vast, as if you could jump right into the water. When I look at this piece I am reminded of the bioluminescent beaches in Puerto Rico and i think that a way to improve this image would be to splatter white or light blue acrylic on top to replicate this luminescent algae.