The painting is one of a few recent large commissions inspired by Lake Superior’s coastal trail in autumn. The complexity and technical challenges are exciting to take on and are sometimes over the top!

This 26 by 62 inch watercolour was painted on 140lb Arches cold press that comes on a roll of 44 inches by 10 yards.  Cutting off the roll allows custom sizes in which in the past I have done watercolours up to 72 by 176 inches.  Not cheap, but when framed with non-reflective UV90 museum glass the results can be wonderfully rare and transcendent.

Often large works have some sort of plan going, and being a studio piece photo reference is used. However I like to leave room for  the image to evolve and use memory and imagination, thus I do not pre draw to much. When it comes to rocks, each one is a portrait interrelated to another by wear and reflection if wet, so they have to be well seen to be believable. I love the natural spirals and inner rhythms of a boulder beach. Even though it is a representational painting I basically just paint a dance of light and dark coloured shapes that grow and interlock with each other that hopefully create a hierarchy of entertaining focal points that sing a reverent song of place throughout the illusion of space.