Colour & Contrast

Following on from the pale grey, blues of last month's paintings inspired by Compton Beach on a still, quiet evening, I have been working on a vividly contrasted canvas that belongs to a series inspired by evening on the River Yar. I lived for eight years in a cottage right on the river at Mill Creek where the tide came up to the quay wall a few feet from the house, which looked due West and from where I witnessed many spectacular sunsets. Late last year I undertook a commission to make a new painting for a patron who knew those sunsets too. In returning to sunset watching at Mill Creek in search of inspiration for that commission I found that my mind filled with half forgotten images and memories from my years of living there. This latest painting is one of several new pieces of work that are emerging from that bank of absorbed images. It is an oil 97cm H x 6ocm W on 4cm D stretchers. I have wrapped the painting around the edge of the canvas so that the bands of colour show in the 4cm deep profile edge of the work. It is now hanging at Yarmouth Gallery and is priced £1,100