Winter 2019-2020: my partner and I hibernate in Sri Lanka. We desired sunshine, easy vibes, surf scene and spicy food. He’s a surfer and I’m a painter so we’d go our separate ways for a few hours each day. But this scene is an ode and remembrance to the time we spent together at Dreamsea, Ahangama.
The sunset and put all colours in stark contrast. I love the intense shadows with the bright sky at a certain point during sunset and captured that. I couldn’t recreate the colours even if I wanted to. So I tried a different approach with watercolour: deep, deep black versus the translucence we know of aquarelle paintings. And I left some spaces untouched for extra contrast.
I figured that point during sunset is quite symbolic. The change of light is very rapid and every second yields a different scene. There are moments in relationships when everything seems to speed up too, so fast that you forget to savour every moment because it is all so lush and abundant. Looking back and trying to relive that moment will always be a simplification of what actually happened. This sunset at Dreamsea I thought I could take all of the impressions in.
But going back to the scene visually, new insights pop up and a new appreciation of the motion of the waves, the placement of the sandbanks, the workings of my medium to capture something already gone… Time flies. I love how art can help us revisit, relive, and respect life as it happened.
Dreamsea, Ahangama is available, 21 x 29,5 cm, watercolours on watercolourpaper, € 199. Contact me for more info.
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