A large part of my practice as an artist is working 'en plein air'. This means that the entire paintings is executed directly in front of the subject rain, hail or shine. For me this is the most wonderful aspect of painting - when one is in a total state of 'flow', feeling the fullness of the experience not just in visual terms but through all the senses in a time-based experience rather than just the momentary snapshot of the photo reference. The joy of trying to encapsulate this in a small postcard sized format against the vagaries of weather, time and light is an endless challenge that I relish. Most of these small 'pochades' work ok, some are inevitably disastrous but when they work well they possess a jewel-like gesturalquality that is hard to rival in studio based work.
I love to travel and paint, not necessarily to far flung places but sometimes short visual journeys along a coastal route or a neatly encapsulated weekend of painting on a deserted island off west coast of Ireland. I rarely have an end point in mind for such journeys but really feel that they are best experienced as a collection rather than split individually. I hope you enjoy the collections here and please check back to see new ones as I add them in.
© Copyright David West