The North East coastline is beautiful, amazing beaches and stretches of rocks, worn smooth by the sea. One of my daily walks takes a lesser known pathway around Browns Point into the Bay. The rock formations are relatively flat which makes it easy to scramble across with a great view of the North Sea so plenty of inspiration. It amazes me how much a familiar walk can change day to day based on whether the tide is in or out and flat or crashing against the rocks casting a foamy white spray.
I love the textures and colours set deep into the stone and this inspired me to create a collection of paintings. Those painted in the summer months are lighter in colour, others much darker and richer tones conveying earthy browns – the rocks left dry as the tide ebbs away. Others blues and turquoise as the water covers the rocks and you could just about see the structure of the rocks beneath the sea.
I wanted to convey a sense of the mark making floating free from the structural form of the rocks – separating the solid, surface texture from the actual shapes of the rocks.
Click on any image for more detail and information
All of the pieces are mixed media – I work with acrylics, charcoal, chalks, sometimes ink and collage. The textures are built up over time with multiple layers to give texture and depth to the paintings. Some of the works were created on paper, others wooden boards, wood art panels or canvas boards – the sizes and materials are detailed beneath each image