I love painting water and I love painting beautiful women so when I have chance to put the two together I’m always happy with that challenge. And this painting is one of the most challenging I’ve done, and thats saying a lot, as I’ve done some very challenging paintings over the years….
This fantasy painting is done in acrylics as it enables me to paint light and dark and glaze colours to show the hints of colours through other colours. Painting water and creatures and light within it meant I had to build up the various aspects and tones.
After drawing out the basic shapes of the boat and the woman in it, and then put a base coat of blocks of basic colour on the paper to seal it. I then had to think of the order of everything I was painting, as it wasn’t going to be the obvious one of starting at the top and working down to the bottom.
I painted the sea above the boat first, to get the tones of the sea and light coming through it. Then I painted the sea below the boat and the ripples of waves in it. Then I painted the wooden boat, the outside timbers, and then the inside of it. Then I painted the various fish and two turtles. Then I painted the spear the woman is holding. Then I painted the womans metallic dress. Then I painted the flesh of the woman, her hand, the shoulders and neck, then I painted the womans face. Then I painted the crown on her forehead, then I painted the womans hair as it had to look like it was coming from her head, and flowing in the water behind her shoulders it was one of the most difficult parts to get right.
I didn’t use black at all in the painting, the darks were created by burnt sienna and ultramarine blue mixed together, I also used brilliant blue and cobalt blue, yellow oxide (the ochre shade) cadmium yellow, cadmium red, medium magenta (the pink shade) and titanium white. Because all the colours were mixed with variations of those colours it adds harmony to the painting.
The painting is of a woman sitting in a wooden boat, with a spear in her hand, fishing. But she’s also under the water as well, with fish and turtles swimming in the water around her. She wears a metallic dress, and her hair floats in the water, so is she really a mermaid? Its for you to decide…
Whatever the tale is I love this painting, I’ve painted it for myself. Theres more than 70 hours of work gone into creating it, Its in acrylics on paper, measures 18 x 14 inches and is called ‘Fishing with turtles’.
