Recently I went on a number of trips and brought my paints with me to do location work. I know that it takes almost two weeks to get the feel of a location and make amazing paintings; the first few days of a painting excursion can produce interesting, yet very tight paintings that are affected by the stress of the trip, and the sense of your original location. I really learned this fact when I went to Barbados many years ago, and the first couple of days worth of paintings seemed faded and lifeless. When a local fellow looked at my paintings and said 'where is the colour?' I had a revelation, and all of the subsequent paintings were lively indeed. So it takes a combination of time and insight to gain the proper mindset. When a trip only lasts two or three days it is not possible to get relaxed and warmed up, so I decided to paint a lot before the trips. I tried this last year before Amsterdam, for about a week I tried to go out and get used to location painting again, and by and large it worked I only took a few days to get into the swing of things. To make along story short, this was one of about a dozen strange abstract paintings I made in July and August to get warmed up for location painting. None of the locations were this weird though! Most of them have paintings on the back too.
5x7" Cold press, Watercolour 2019
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