Silver light

Acrylic on paper, 28cm x 53cm

Painting light is one of the key goals of many artists. Painting contre-jour, or against the light, presents all sorts of challenges for the artist and in ‘Silver light’ I wanted to capture the effect of sparkling sunlight dancing on water.  The wet mud shone like silver but the white and pale-grey gulls appeared darker than the water and clumps of seaweed became almost black against the light. This was a scene of high contrast and I wanted to convey that feeling of having to squint to look at it.

I liked the limited palette of blue-greys and browns jazzed up by the vibrant acid greens of sun shining through sea lettuce. Black-headed gulls, redshanks and oystercatchers fed along the shallow waters of the burn.

This painting can be seen at my one-man show at the Donald Watson Gallery, Waterston House, Aberlady, from 19th November 2016 to 11th January 2017. Please click here for more details.