From Dark into Light VIII ©John O’Grady
15.75″ x 23.5″ x 1.25″, oil on deep edged wooden panel, ready to hang.

NFS (Not for Sale)

It’s often in hindsight that I look at how a painting came into being.

Sometimes a piece is led by a thought, a remembering of an experience or feeling and trying to express that through paint.

And sometimes I come at a painting from the opposite direction where the act of mark making and moving paint around leads me in a particular direction.

With this piece I used a large springy brush loaded with paint to bounce off the resistant surface of the wooden panel. The resulting staccato marks revealed the start of this seascape, dark and brooding.

The way forward with these sorts of pieces are to hold onto the force and energy of the first broad marks, whilst refining form and colour.

Often they crash and burn as I overreach, refining too much or I simply lose my way.

On this particular occasion, I feel I struck the right chord and then stopped.

That’s the important part, to stop.

My energy fed through into the energy I’ve experienced when standing before the Atlantic ocean on the wild west coast.

By keeping the palette pared back it accentuated the contrast in dark and light lit by the moonlight just out of view top left.

I’d love to hear what your feelings are about this painting.