Swans Taking Flight

Oil on canvas

“Swans Taking Flight is the largest of my paintings and one of the most admired. It was this piece that marks the beginning of my signature style. I always painted very traditionally, and thought splashed paint lacked a certain grandeur for the viewer. I initially painted the swans with a colourless background, and was working on the reflections. They were to be the most detailed part… weeks were spent getting it just perfect, but it lacked a certain something, so I kept working on it. Out of frustration and vexation I splattered the white paint at the middle swan, quickly and carelessly swiping the thick brush with the rich sunset reflection, accepting that this huge painting was ruined so I did not care if I destroyed it – dripping and splashing paint everywhere.  I was so upset at my failure to make the painting perfect, that it was only when I displayed this emotion that the painting took form, movement, and became a painting that embraces freedom, depth and character.  What was missing from the painting all the time, was me. I had put none of myself into it. 
 
As an artist I always try to be open to learning, but this lesson was the biggest, most influential change of my style, and that was, not to paint for the viewer. . . It was, to paint for me. In the way I see,  
with the style that is authentically me.”