I love painting but seldom paint for myself, unless I’m painting portraits of my children, but recently I worked on a self-led commission. Last year we had a loft conversion put in and the new ensuite bathroom had a ready made space for a little landscape painting – something to bring me joy as I start my day. I have to admit, putting a painting in the bathroom is perhaps a brave choice, but since I painted it myself, I am willing to risk it, plus there’s a powerful extractor fan.
Taking reference from the countless rainbows I’ve been inspired to gaze at and photograph, I planned a painting of the distant view from my bedroom window, especially shopping around for the right size canvas that would look perfect in the space.
Life isn’t aways easy but surrounding yourself with things that do you good and inspire positive mental pathways is important, be that music or art. To me, the rainbow symbolises hope – from Genesis and beyond. Having visited the Late Constable exhibition at the National Gallery, I was amazed by how many rainbows he’d also captured and the myriad ways he’d depicted them. Having suffered terribly by the loss of his wife and having large family of children to raise, it’s no wonder that he chose this symbol to repeatedly represent in paint.
Constable wrote in 1833: ‘Nature, in all the varied aspects of her beauty, exhibits no feature more lovely nor any that awaken a more soothing reflection than the rainbow’.
Here, I took great delight in working at the painting in a number of sittings, meaning that I could add a glazed light to the rainbow. I also added to the trees with pinks that connect up with the red in the rainbow but also soothe my soul. Pink seems to be a recurrent colour in recent paintings I’ve work on. Here is the final painting in situ:
If you’d like to discuss a commission personal to you, do get in touch, I’d love to help you bring something meaningful into your home.
