Summer Solace

As a warm, bright sun broke briefly through ominous clouds and dreary rain today, I felt the first hint of Spring in the air with a promise of summer heat soon to follow. Looking forward to painting outdoors again, the vision in my mind filled with rich gold and amber light, and I recalled a pair of paintings now sitting proudly in the collection of my favourite Osteopath in Lanarkshire...

Summer Solace I - Oil on canvas - 24 x 24in - Private collection

Such rich amber cadmium colours I associate with the warm glow of the hearth.. I love how the reds and golds vibrate against the hint of palest turquoise-green... Here I wanted to give a sense of peace after a storm.. a golden sunset, an evening glow; looking out to a sparkling light on the horizon...
I keep returning to this theme - a sense of travelling across water towards a new horizon, where there’s often a path leading fowards into the light, a metaphor for a journey through life with lightever fascinating, compelling and guiding onwards into a future as yet unknown, and yet somehow brighter than the present..

Summer Solace II - oil on canvas - 24 x 24in - Private Collection

The Sunset holds associations of a period of peace and relaxation after a sense of achievement. A closure before embarking on a new journey. The calm waters at the entry point of perspactive here give a sense of floating, resting... and yet there’s more solid ground to traverse ahead... another path to walk..... tomorrow...