Bad Weather in the Mountains

This is the biggest painting I've ever created at 30 x 22" (76 x 56 cm). It was great fun to work at this size, despite my initial misgivings about it - the paper looked huge! Once I got started, though, I enjoyed the freedom of painting on this scale. This painting was commissioned by a client whose husband is a winch man on a Royal Air Force Sea King Search and Rescue helicopter and the painting was to mark his first operational rescue, now some time ago. It was an honour to paint this painting! I wanted to make the weather real and to give the snow a sense of movement - of blowing in our faces. I enjoyed painting the sky, in particular, allowing the paints to separate and spread by themselves to create the rich greys, and allowing them to blur into the snowstorm. I hope this painting pays adequate tribute to those brave men and women that do this job every day!