Celebrating the sea in a painting
I’m never sure whether to reference events outside my blogbubble as it threatens to end up under the heading “That Aged Well…” but then again, what is the purpose of the blog, other than to keep you all up to date with what’s going on in my life, birdwatching logbooks or otherwise?
So this week, the RNLI have come in for some heavy criticism because they have been doing their job, namely rescuing people from the sea. I won’t wade in on the immigration/asylum seeker situation here as it’s incredibly complex, and I am no expert (although I am a human being, and have a healthy sense of “there but for the grace of God go I” when it comes to other people’s struggles and decisions) but I must say, picking on the volunteer crew of our lifeboat service does seem myopic even for those not blessed with empathy, common sense, nor an awareness of maritime law.
I lived in Eastbourne for a number of years, and watching the lifeboat head out was always full of mixed emotions: it’s such an impressive vessel, and when coupled with the coastguard helicopter there’s the combined sense of awe and wonder, as well as the sense of sadness at the reason why they’ve been deployed. The sea for me is strictly “viewing only” and a ferry trip across the Solent is about all I can manage. Speaking of which, when we visit the IoW next month I’m hoping that the tides will be kind so I can go and have a look on the beach for shells, anemones, and seaweed as I love rockpools, and the unique little worlds which appear for a few hours each day when the sea retreats.
Following on from the Arctic Char in my previous post, I wanted to do another painting as I am feeling a bit out of touch with my sketchbook at the moment. I found a nice illustration of an Edible Crab in one of my field guides, so chose that as I’ve not attempted a crustacean before, and I wanted to paint something sea-y.
I remember watching a YouTuber once who said that with gouache, you had to persevere through the ugly phase and I think my artwork has improved since then as before I would have thought ugh that’s awful I’m never going to get that to look any good. It does just need a lot of judicious going over with darks and lights and then darker darks and lighter lights and bingo, it then sort of pops off the paper. My main dark colour is prussian blue + burnt umber and then I go in with black for the very darkest shadows. The highlights are usually lemon yellow + titanium white for a warm painting such as this, and I add a touch of ultramarine to the white for a cool highlight. The orange I used here was a mix in varying quantities of vermillion and yellow ochre (leftovers from the Char), with a little carmine for the deeper reds.
I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I painted the mussels in afterwards as the crab needed grounding, and they do eat bivalves, apparently.
