This group of paintings are about sunrise, sunsets and moonlight and their light effects on the sea. Apart from B4 and B191 they are small format paintings but all are executed using different techniques.
B172 Vlaanderen zonsondergang (Sunset in West-Flanders) board 16 x 24 cm July 2018.
An impression of a sun setting through low clouds. Motif colour of blue-green with red-orange complement dominating.
Nr247 Scarlet Smudge, board 28 x 23 cm September 2019. An almost abstract inference of the landscape to put all the focus into the “Scarlet Smudge” of the sun. A simple painting in its essence but very tempting to overdo the detail and thereby take the eye away from that focal image.
Nr. 257 Glazed Sunset, board 30 x 40 cm January 2019. A very simple painting that has hung around the studio for a couple of yeaars until I realised that with very little further work I had achieved what I wanted. The very low horizon line defies all the design advice such as Rule of Thirds but is probably balanced because of the impact of that intense burst of yellow-green (a tint of opaque Barytes Yellow Lemon) where the sun would be so intense it would be impossible to more than glimpse it.
B4 Avond in Vlaanderen (Evening in West-Flanders), canvas 70 x 50 cm July 2017. The largest painting in this group. The device of a horizontal string adhered to the canvas at roughly the mid position is to creat shadow in normal hanging conditions. It will be noted that the painting has deliberately been created so as not to form a “true” reflection. This creates dissonance and, hopefully, invites further inspection. The multiple layers of glaze and patches of opaque paint (“force”) create an illusion of depth.
B117 Dark sky, stormy sea off Oostende, board 18 x 24 cm, August 2019. This small painting uses a very close set of harmonic colours round blue-green and minute impasto marks to represent to squally wind driving the clouds and wind-wipped sea viewed from a north shore.
B173 Sunset over the Wash, board 23 x 28 cm, November 2018. For its size this painting has probably taken me proportionately more easel hours than any other work. The light-burst and the sun have involved numerous layerings and multiple minute taches. It has given me great joy to work on this little painting.
B183 Moonlight, board 30 x 40 cm. I had a tube of a now rare paint, genuine Manganese Blue which is intrinsically a most beautiful transparent blue-green and wanted to create a painting around that, a painting that in its entirety is very quiet and calm. It has been on the easel for many months in the second studio with a lot of other painting activity going around it, but every time I drop back onto B183 to make small changes it gives pleasure. The camera unfortunately picks up some white from the rather rough gesso ground with which the board was prepared – this is not visible at normal viewing distance so I may decide not to change it.
B191 Zonsondergang over de Schelde (Sun-set across the river Schelde into mist), board 51 x 61 cm, April 2019. The lights from the small town on the opposite bank twinkled through the mist. A calm picture with small differences in the colours of river and sky and multiple glazes of a very fine special white translucent paint before and after the spots of the illuminations were added.
B194 Green glow, sun sinking, board faced with Belgian linen canvas 23 x 28 cm, August 2019. Another very small format painting in this set. The minute taches from the brush and the small touches of impasto made for a long, and thoroughly enjoyable gestation. The motif colour is a blue-green. The orb of the sun has a halo of near white around the lemon yellow with the horizontal break and contrast formed by the red-orange glow on the mist.