I Can Climb Mountains (Original, Signed and Framed)

Painting Size: 85cm x 60cm 

Media: Windsor and Newton Artists Watercolours | Windsor and Newton Designer's Gouache | Windsor and Newton's Inks

It’s an interesting exercise to revisit a previous painting. Around 18 months, maybe two years ago, I painted We Three Trees.  The original sold a while ago, but inspired by a friend I thought I’d have a go a painting a companion to the original painting, a kind of evolution.

I would like to think I have a style of some kind that filters through the work I’ve produced over the past years.  My main desire is that I adhere to the principles (as I interpret them) around Post Impressionism, in which I paint a ‘feeling’ as best as I can rather than the direct visual spectacle.  

Whilst I predominantly use watercolour paint, I did incorporate gouache and inks on both the first version and this second version.  As I discovered whilst painting this recent work, it’s impossible to ‘replicate’ in art. In a sense, this is what makes an original, ‘original’ – what’s interesting though is that close up the brushstrokes on the newer painting look like the previous painting, though the latter is much looser and therefore looks that way from a distance. 

I suppose all artists evolve if they keep at it and I have produced over 40 paintings since the first iteration of this particular piece. This brushes I use, the quality of paper and paints have also moved on. I cannot say if one is better than the other. They are different. Yet, the feeling I have when looking at each version is similar, of lightness and something very positive.  Actually the new version is spilling over with light, which I like and perhaps it has more visual depth and intricacy.

This I suppose is an exercise in subjectivity both for the viewer and myself.