Hidden Coast Path 100 x 80 cm mixed media - 2014

The painting in the demonstration "Hidden Coast Path" belongs to the "Abandoned Fields" series. After visiting Ellie in her Paragon Gallery in Cheltenham, my husband and I travelled through the Cotswold area and down to Cornwall. It was my first journey in Southern England.    

Back home in Andalusia I started a somewhat moody painting: 

And in my mind appears the fantastic coast line of Devon with steep mountains, where it´s better to stay high above on the small path and not climb down to the wild sea, although the attraction is quite strong.

With the palette knife and brush I modulate some mountain shapes, using ultramarine blue/white and small lines of sand and horsehair worked into the wet color with light touches of burnt umber - which becomes a grayish note in the mix.

Klick on the image will open a view in line. 

So the development of the painting process is even more visible.

Although I liked the colors and how they worked together, they have to go: Too soft, too gentle for what is now in my mind. I mix burnt umber/ultramarine blue/white on my palette in  different quantities, so I get warmer and some cooler grays. Burnt sienna for the warmer parts. Again I work with palette knife and brush at the same time. This gives me the chance to modulate more rough structures on the canvas. Rocks with sharp edges in the lower part are made of the same mix but cooler.

Up on the top where the hidden path is, I paint a house, a lonesome cottage. Now it is more visible how wide the mountain chain is and how steep the rocks are. I would like the viewer to feel the loneliness and wilderness of the place.

With a mix of ultramarine blue/white I make visible where the sea meets the mountain, where the waves break on the steep rocks and my brush makes a blur (a blurring wash) to fill the air with spray.  

After painting some more shades in the left lower part with a transparent wash of ultramarine blue/red oxide pigments, 

I decided the painting is finished. Later I looked at the photographs we had taken during our journey. There were none like this. But even so I`m quite sure that this might be the view of a fisherman in his boat looking back to the coast.