Summer Exhibition

I'm working on a large painting for the Summer Exhibition at 'De Twee Pauwen' Art Gallery in The Hague (Netherlands). Their theme for this year is Water and that fits me like a glove. Thought it'd be nice to keep you posted with some footage of the painting process, starting with the design.

I spent quite some time on the design of this painting. In my archive I had a photo of a beautiful April morning cloud. Couldn't get a clear shot, because of the trees in the foreground. It needed a little Photoshop magic before I could use it for my painting.

Spent a few hours in my photo archive to come up with the right sea for this sky. I was looking for a 'bright-day-sea', that would dissolve into the sky on the left side of the picture. That is a bit of a contradiction, so it wasn't easy.

After some experimenting I started to like what I had, but I felt the picture needed a warm accent, so I pasted a beach (got a lotta beaches in my archive) in the bottom part of the picture. 

Please, click the play button to get a 40 second impression of the process.

I finished the design with a small beach pole in the lower left corner. It has a deep red top that adds yet another warm/cold contrast to the picture.

Next time some footage of me working on the painting. That's a bit scary; there is always a possibility the painting goes horribly wrong...

See you in a fortnight.