World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Lucia

 Saint Lucia is in the same region as the previous painting in the series, Saint Kitts and Nevis. The two countries have much the same history with the native Arawak people being displaced by a succession of British and French colonial rule which eventually settled on the British. Slavery for sugar cane was predominant on the island until the early 19th century. In the mid 20th century it became independent although remained part of the Commonwealth with the Queen, now the King, as the ceremonial head of state. Otherwise they have a democracy. As you might have guessed, tourism is now the number one industry, followed by agricultural, mostly tropical fruits.

After painting a large number of island countries, there are less and less original ways to show the ocean, lush mountains and turquoise sea. Here, I mixed graphite grey (PBk11) with prussian blue (PB27), cerulean blue (PB35), vandium yellow (PY184), and mica (PW20) which sparkles. So the original paintings sparkles when held up to light but that doesn't show up well on the scan. The idea was to let the contours of the sharp mountains and textures of the foliage carry the composition without using much colour. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Lucia version 1 (No. 3900b)

In this version I made an outline using the grey-blue mix, hoping to capture the feel of the scene without using colour. The lines were too thick on the mountains, but the idea here has some potential.

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Lucia version 2 (No. 3896a)

 Here is the third version,

It was meant to be a stylized motif of the twin-peak mountains, but the foreground felt flat. It will be challenge to compose the next painting, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, its in the same region. Maybe I just need to literally go to one of these places and see it for real!

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Lucia version 3 (No. 3898b)