Painted in Aug, 2026. 10”x10”.
Acrylic on stretched canvas. Price $125.00 Cdn. Unframed
In November, before the long winter rains become a constant presence, I get to enjoy my favourite Fall weather. A fresh wind blows up the Malaspina, churning up the sea and creating a dramatic backdrop for any boats that are brave enough to battle their way past our house. The white froth of the waves breaking on the rocks, contrasted with the dark blue angry ocean leads the eye out to the horizon where Texada Island is framed in beautiful cloud formations that are common when winds blow from the South-East.
With my paintings, I try to evoke some of the same feelings or emotions that I get when I am experiencing the landscape I’m painting. For me, a windy Fall day down at the shore wakes me up, makes my senses keener, my breath is deeper and colours more intense. This is a big contrast to the hazy days of August, where everything feels faded and worn.
Painting waves crashing on rocks has always been a huge challenge for me. It’s taken me six years to develop the skill level necessary to paint waves crashing on rocks. This painting was particularly difficult because it included both waves crashing on boulders, but also the water streaming back over the rocks as each new wave pulled the previous wave back to deep water. Because this is a much smaller painting (10”x10”), I painted it quickly and with vigor. By doing so, I wanted to mirror that fresh vigorous feeling when I experience a Fall wind on the shores of the Salish Sea. This painting also is a big improvement in my ability to take a complicated detailed scene and abstract it down to a fewer number of brush strokes.
