‘West coast scene, Isle of Harris’
‘West coast scene, Isle of Harris’, Oil on canvas, 2013, 80 x 80 cm
Well then, this is the final version of an oil painting I started four or five months ago. It’s based on a view we saw as we were driving down the road along the west coast of Harris back in May. At one point the road climbs just a little and from the lay-by conveniently situated at the high point, we had a superb view out over the rock, sand and surf. It was quite a rough sea and there was a lot of movement in the scene. This painting is done entirely from the memories I have of standing there just looking and listening. I wanted to create something that was hopefully both abstract and landscape / seascape and use very thick paint applied almost entirely with my fathers old six inch wide horse hair house painting brush. The paint has been built up over time with the thick paint put down in slightly different directions, the brush strokes overlapping each other.
This is quite different from much of my acrylic and pastel work and I must admit I’m finding it hard and very different working in oil …but it’s been great fun and I think I’ve learn quite a lot from doing this piece. I’ve already started work on several other pieces …but before I go much further I may need to track down a manufacturer of traditional horse hair brushes as my father’s old house painting brush, (I remember him using it on our house in Epping in the mid 1960’s) is shouting out for retirement!
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