Melling Countryside

Acrylic on Canvas, 45 x 38 cm, 2015-16

This painting was done as a gift for my mother and based on photos taken on a day out with family in Melling, near Liverpool. My mother asked me to do it for her because she loved the contrasting dark clouds and light reflections on the canal, the magical rainbow and the barges. Melling is a really beautiful area with canals and fields stretching for miles and a lot of barges can be seen sailing along or moored at the sides. On this day there was a thunderstorm approaching in the distance as we walked by the canal, causing the rainbow and the contrasts in the rain laden clouds above. This was a challenging piece due to all of the small details that was built up using thin layers of Acrylic paint that I worked on (along with other pieces) for almost a year. Canals and barges have always been special to me and it was nice to finally try to capture some.