As a child, I was scared of walking out on the Queenscliff pier. The vision of green roiling water between the wooden slats caught my attention every time. I worried the wood would be rotten and collapse beneath my feet. An absent plank here and there didn’t help me dismiss my fears.

We visited Queenscliff every holiday. My Nanna lived there, and we loved the beach, the cliiff tops, the fort and the pier. My fear never stopped me walking out into the historical shelter for ferry passengers where Nanna told us she used to dance, when they held balls in the space. It was magical as well as terrifying. Perhaps that is why I hold this memory so deeply.

Capturing a Memory

Currently, I’m trying to capture the memory of the sun glinting off the surface of moving water in acrylics on canvas. This is a departure from my usual intuitive process where I don’t know what I’m working toward.

I think it’s nearly finished. My final decision is whether to paint in the boards, or to leave it as waves. Consequently, I’ve put it aside for a while, so I can come back to it with fresh eyes.

What I Notice

The colours call to me. Like orange, these colours appear in many paintings. There’s something primordial about them.

If you are wondering what paint I use, acrylics are my preferred medium for canvas. I work quickly, so I need paint that dries fast. Mostly I use Matisse Structure, but others do find their way into my paint box.

The free-form strokes in my painting approach are still there. The work is still in an abstract style. These are not necessarily conscious decisions. It is just the way I paint.

While I painted, I thought about the colours in the troughs and the peaks of the waves more than I thought about brush strokes. As the layers built up, the curved shapes, and orientation of sunlight became key.

In many ways, this is a small, simple painting. Yet it holds for me the feeling of the water’s potential to leap at me, and pull me in. My gut feel is that painting in the planks would diminish this power. My inkling is to leave it as it is, but I’ll still give it time before making the final call.

What do you think?