Teignmouth Promenade
Here's a painting of Teignmouth Promenade in Devon on a Sunny August Bank holiday. It's a nostalgic but contemporary view of the British seaside which has been in decline since the advent of package holidays abroad in the 1960's - 70's. With fine weather and a busy beach it feels more like the crowded beaches of my childhood. As you can see, the beach is by no means fully loaded as it would have been 30 years ago or more.
Focalism
I'm experimenting with a technique of selective focus, derived from my photographic studies which use the camera to produce depth of field effects. Our vision is similar in that we focus our direct attention on the object of attention and our mind fills in the peripheral details from a quick scan and reference to our own enormous, internal reference library of real world objects, surfaces and textures. I say experimenting because I'm using different levels of detail and in this complex image with a long z axis - (distance to the horizon) I figured out that multiple detail of the people on the beach would capture more faithfully how we process, store and recall information. This image above is where I'm up to now. I may add further detail later.
Image 2
This image below is the previous work in progress and you can see how I've used large blocks of colour and big brush strokes to create the image while I have begun to pick out the main focus of the image, (which is primarily the man in the pink t-shirt)
Image 3
This is the first pass or blocking out of the image. A large block brush fills in the main areas of the picture to give an impression of the scene. I like this style in itself as a nod to impressionistic styles in general and could be considered finished but it's also a starting point for the later versions.
