La Reunion, Coral

On the beach at L'Hermitage there were many large chunks of coral which may have washed up or may have been carried up by the beach folk who use them to weigh down their towels in the island wind. This was a sizeable chunk of coral, larger than your two hands and weighing a kilo or so. The patterns and colours of the coral were really inspiring, it was a bit of a challenge to pull it off though.

Even though this is the simplest subject matter I painted on the trip, it was probably one of the most technically difficult. I began with the underlying colours and shadows, a complex mixture of pinks, ambers, peaches, and warm lilac tones. As the painting dried I 'spiked' the shadow areas with darker purples and browns, by spiked I mean that I put colour into a semi-dry layer resulting in a very smooth changing of the tone. Even though the coral itself was rock hard, it appeared very 'cottony' and the light reflected off it in an almost halo-like way...the key to capturing this feeling was to keep everything smooth and a little fuzzy instead of having the elements too sharp an focused....examine the edges of the coral and you see a very undefined line. The details of the coral structure were added after the underpainting was nearly dry, they were kept fairly muted so as to maintain the illusion of a delicate coral.

5x7" cold press 2011