Remember the seagull painting?

Last time we saw it, it looked like this:

No sign of the original idea, and goodness only knew where it was going. At this point I felt quite overwhelmed, by not knowing what to do, not having a ‘feel’ {which is kind of like having an idea but more to do with the energy than the look}, and the sheer size of the canvas.

Then  I spoke with a friend about it and she immediately saw a wharf {I’d been seeing a circus, somewhat reluctantly}, and sent me a photo of one near where she lives, and boom! I was back in the flow.  {Thanks Pauline!}

A huge canvas requires attention in a different way than a small one; it’s a strange paradox of more freedom of movement and more need for attention to detail somehow.

I decided I liked the new direction ~ it still has the beach connection with the emerging beach huts ~ so I took it further on this new path. Keeping the colour palette I had already, I started blocking in areas; although I didn’t know the feel of the overall piece yet, I was able to follow the feel of individual areas, and keep standing back to check they were working together and with the emerging whole.

At this point I knew it was nearly there but something wasn’t quite right.

I took some advice and sorted out the mess at the top, using lighter colours to push the buildings back, made a few minor tweaks so each area worked for me and with the painting as a whole, and ended up with this:

Fiesta at the Wharf
mixed media on canvas
1m x 1m

A working title for now, as this one lacks some finesse for me, but the words ‘wharf’ and ‘fiesta’ come to me every time I look at it. I loved flattening and distorting the images to make an image that makes some sense but also requires imagination to really enjoy. For me, there are ‘beach huts’ in the distance, larger buildings down on the wharf with lots of ribbons and bunting, the yellow alternates between sand and the promenade, and at the bottom of the painting is the sea {with two poles which I can only assume are to tie boats to}.