Making it Real – an original oil painting about wishes coming true

Description

This is an unusual painting for me in that it took a few years to complete. It was inspired by a desire I have to live in Switzerland – a beautiful country as I found out when I was 20. I fondly recall sitting on the side of a mountain in Interlaken in a field of wild flowers and buttercups and looking down on a glittering blue lake with an ancient wooden church below me and cow bells tinkling beside a waterfall. It was a complete Sound of Music moment and I have not forgotten it. This painting is my attempt to make it real. It is painted in thick textured paint and is multi layered. The purple and green dark colours of the canvas represents the view through dark pine trees that obscures most of the landscape but allows tantalizing glimpses of a lake, mountains, forests, a church and the wildflowers. There are several little cameos showing different aspects of the scene, each one of which goes from fairly realistic to just abstract spots and lines towards the edge of the canvas. The red lines are branches but also look like veins and the dark patches are acting as barriers to the perfect vista as they emotional as well as physical. In summary this is a painting about wanting something and trying to make it real through intention and by simply continuing to create it until it begins to happen. This is how anything is achieved isn’t it?…