Dog Day Painting

‘Dog Day’ is painted using oil and acrylic on canvas. It is a large painting on an artist’s high quality Windsor and Newton stretcher which is warp resistant. The painting is made using large brushstrokes and the texture of the paint and brush marks are visible on the surface of the canvas. It is painted using a combination of oil and acrylic paint which gives it extreme vibrancy and shine in some areas. In some areas of the painting the oil pigment is fluorescent which gives intense strong colour. The paintings for In the Air have been especially developed for the gallery space within Shoreham Airport’s’ Whispering Gallery’. Shoreham airport in a wonderful Art deco grade 11 listed building. The atrium gallery is lit by natural overhead light and the centre of the space is a turquoise atrium with an aeroplane flying across. The paintings developed in direct response to this space. I have always known the airport as it is local to me and an excellent place to take young children as you can sit right outside near the runway in the café having lunch and watching planes taking off and landing. I’ve spent a lot pf happy afternoons watching planes with my own boys and it struck me as great subject matter. Planes, going and coming, travelling, touching down in new and far flying places, the memories checking in a bag evokes are feeling that I wanted to capture in the work. Dog Day is a painting made from images gathered at Saltdean Lido. At the end of the season the pool is opened to the public to go and visit with their dogs. It’s chaos. Dogs leaping and jumping alongside their owners into the pool. It’s one of the highlights for many dog owners. I decided to take our chocolate lab along, and develop this painting. For a while I didn’t include the town behind the lido, but when I painted in the painting made a lot more sense. A lot of the houses have green roofs which are very distinct and connected the dots in the painting.