Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Sweeping View of Trinidad from the South


"Sweeping View of Trinidad from the South" by Andrew Daniel
18" x 24" oil on canvas
Contact artist 

My initial impulse when I looked at this scene was to try and communicate how high up I was above the crashing surf and how far off I could see. So I imagined a bird flying over this sweeping foreground hill side, then out over the surf and across the bay. The huge Trinidad Head in the background appears small in the distance. Also, I was interested in how the colors and plant life were waking up from the dormant tans of winter and various flowers were coming back. The surf was oh so challenging to paint. It needed a sense of movement, a compositional harmony, a graceful gesture and a range of textures to create the volume. This turned out to be a complex puzzle that could only be resolved through several layers, each pulling out more expressive qualities while mellowing out others. I think I might take a few months off of surf paintings now...

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