Low Tide at Dawn © John O’Grady
13″ x 13″ x 0.75″, oil on canvas, ready to hang.
Not for Sale
On my last blog post ‘Winter in Wicklow’, I mentioned how the muted palette whispered like a breeze.
That phrase stayed with me throughout the creation of this piece.
Making the smallest shift in tone around a range of greys takes time to mix and is thoroughly absorbing: it involves moving a colour from dark to light, from warm to cool and vice versa.
Then it’s time to place one colour next to another one.
The physicality and focus of this subtle work slowed me down and as a result, the finished art work has a quiet reflective quality.
The gradual shift from the sky at the top of the painting moves from a deep jade through to a delicate band of blue grey where the silver orb of the moon hovers silently.
Our eye moves slowly, to adapt to the gradual and subtle changes, down through the next band to the rose-coloured horizon line. The jade gets lighter and lighter and allows the deep grey clouds to stand out in relief.
The feeling of the painting evokes the milky light you might encounter on a cool morning on the west coast of Ireland.
I’d love to hear what your thoughts are.
The serenity and meditative quality of this painting seems to reflect your process in creating it, John. It perfectly captures the atmosphere and particular light of morning along the coast, burning softly through the damp air and glistening in the water. The shifts in color — and value (the grey clouds against the lighter sky: genius) — are both masterful and subtle. The dark land and softly glowing sun create a pleasing, slightly off-balance triangulation for the eye. There is so much going on here, yet the effect is peaceful and tranquil. Thank you for this precious moment of stillness.
Hello Jo,
Yes very true, I felt the process and the result very much intertwined in this piece and the slowing down in making those adjustments. The ‘slightly off-balance triangulation’ that you mention is interesting as I had the focus in the centre of the painting and felt it too static so moved it to the right which seemed to work for me. Thank you very much for your comment Jo
This is beautifully painted John and has an atmosphere which is hard to put into words but which you evoke on canvas: quiet but not silent; serene but not still; muted yet infused with colour. It is the embodiment of hope through nature as a new day emerges. Fabulous!
Hello Chris,
Thank you for your compliment and thoughts on the painting. Your words tally with my own thoughts as I felt those things you described after painting it. Hope as the new day emerges.