Autobiographical Mobile: My painting diary – Days 20-23: Rock pools

by delacybrown on April 25, 2013

It’s hard to believe that this post represents only days 20-23 of this painting. Something surely has to have gone wrong with this account, for in only now approaching the end of this vast project, it feels like I have been painting for months. I have, in fact, been working on this canvas for sometime – since June last year in fact (albeit intermittently) which just goes to show how little time I actually have to paint now that I am a full time lawyer, blogger and new found sketcher and printmaker.

All the same, sometimes the best results are achieved with a little patience and plenty of hard work, and this aphorism is no better proved than with the latest additions to my autobiographical canvas – 4 days painting rock pools. Hard to believe that they would take so long, but each of the little rock forms, which create balance at the foot of my canvas, reflecting the large mountainous forms above in the sandy stretch below, has its own peculiar shape and character. And since each rock comes straight from my imagination, this isn’t a simple case of painting what’s in front of me. Rather, a process of trial and error commences as I try to paint rocks straight from the soul, with a lightness of approach at first as I allow the naturalistic forms to almost metamorphose innately from a wider brush stroke. Then once I feel and see a shape begin to form, I start filling in the painstaking details with a small brush.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The result is a satisfying swathe of rocks and water which add shape and texture to the lower foreground of my work. Reminding me of the hours spent climbing in amongst the various rock pools of the beaches of Jersey in the Channel Islands every summer throughout my childhood, collecting little shells which I later made into little models of snails, these rock forms are an important reflection on the younger years of my life as I explore my story so far on this autobiographical canvas.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.