Diving into H20

The process of the making of Heart of the Ocean 💙🐋

This particular piece was one of those paintings that took so much time that I quite felt like I had become lost swimming in it, or worse sometimes even drowning in it!

Not to misunderstand though, this painting was wonderful to work on, with many sea creatures great and small, a couple of divers, a shipwreck or sub, and a tiny mermaid too!, No, the mission became this, how exactly to make the water colouring right, so as to appear like water under the sea, like you can feel the freshness and coolness of H20. As well as this there was the matter of a slightly but barely apparent pinkish heart shape within the H20 made up along with the composition of the sea animals.

This artwork I was determined must have vast spacial distances and a very deep depth, not just into the painting but also deep down into the depths and all the way up to the surface.

Heart of the Ocean

H20

This artwork took 2 or 3 years working on it here and there, sometimes I had to walk or swim away and ignore it all for a week or two, perhaps even a month or two!, but I would always swim back into it again!

I started a few other artworks, and began hand painting wooden boxes too. I would keep going for a little dive into the H20 though, painting a bit more here and there, it truly felt like a fair long time swimming about.

It didn't feel finished to me for quite a while. Then one day I had moved it onto an easel in a corner over the far side of the room. I was painting on it less and less frequently always thinking it needs this or that more.

So I left it alone for a few weeks, and just simply enjoyed looking at it, I could really dive in, and found out on a fairly hot day, that the painting was refreshing cool to look at.

It just needed a bit more colour on the jellys or the corals. I spent a day or 2 just doing tiny little touch ups and highlighting.

And finally after feeling like it would never be finished all of a sudden it was!

I often know exactly when a piece is finished, or when a painting has been overworked. But this one really eluded me! Now I absolutely love it.

Another matter I find with this artwork is how it really does look better in real life space rather than any photo I have taken anyway. Most photos of my art pretty much looks as it is, not this one though that I could quite literally dive into it and go for a swim with the sea creatures with my cuppa 💙🐬🎨🐋🦑

Heart of the Ocean

H20

At some point halfway through painting this piece, i found i also had to slip away from all social media for a time, completely. I had to take a break with a lot of personal stressful matters going on around me at the time, it was an extra problem rather than something i could enjoy and learn & grow with, everything became too much. So for a while i rested, and i painted just for enjoyment when i could. This painting ‘heart of the Ocean’ was finished a month or two back, i have started on a new collection now, alongside with the hand painted boxes. I have a new website, and i am ready to dive in again!.