Anita Woods Art - At The End of The Day

At The End of The Day....................................

"Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned ........To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament. Upon the other hand they go on."

- Oscar Wilde

After spending many years painting with watercolour I have recently been experimenting with oils. They are so different from the water based media I am used to. The thicker application and depth of colour have given me ideas and have inspired me to create new works.

I spent my childhood on the east coast and the sea was just part of my life, not something I really appreciated until much later when I had moved to Herefordshire which is a long way inland.

Sunsets over the sea are a rare commodity in the east, (!), and something I only experienced on TV or in magazine adverts for 'sophisticated' 1970's purchases such as Martini Rosso.

Sunsets are much richer in colour than sunrises.

I am lucky enough to work part time in an office on the sea front in Aberystwyth. The view from the window is a constant distraction especially during the bad weather. Weather permitting, in November and February I see the sun setting over the sea as I leave for the day. The sea birds are settling for the night and clouds of starlings create swirling clouds before roosting under the pier, a few minutes of this makes a days work seem a distant memory.

The clouds are constantly moving . Storms come in from the sea, high clouds scud across the landscape on clearer days. On windy days the view can change by the minute, a constant flux of changing colour.

An approaching storm contrasts so strongly against a sunlight landscape that it seems to bleach all the colour away from everything around it. In contrast to this the sunset is so bright and colourful, foreground objects are dark and without form. To represent these silhouetted objects, in a believable way, creates quite a challenge to the painter. There is a luminosity in the sky with unexpected colour, greens and violets, not orange and red, which quickly change as the sun slips away.

These works have increased the range of colour in my palette and have introduced new colours into my work. This is a subject matter I feel will keep me inspired for a very long time.

"The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of nature, Everyday, the sun; and after sunset, night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the grass grows."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet