The Beauty of the Arctic

In a recent post I mentioned killer whales - well, somewhat belatedly, here they are! This is a scene off the north-west coast of Prins Karls Forland, one of Norway's National Parks located way up in the high Arctic, at the same latitude as the north of Greenland. This is the sort of place, the sort of view, which completely grabs my emotions and stops me in my tracks. Normally I work from life but although I have been to the Arctic, I have never been here. The photograph was taken by a scientist from Norway (he's credited on the page) and, although it did not include the Orca (which I've added as a subject), it was heart-stoppingly beautiful. I knew I just had to paint the island.
I don't start a painting until I have sketched it and thought about it until I can 'see' the finished painting in detail in my head. This one required a great deal of thought, not necessarily because of the difficulty or detail of the subjects, but because my love for the cold and remote places on this beautiful planet required that the overall picture convey every emotion I feel for the place. I needed the picture to say 'purity' in every way, to present the clarity of the air and the crystalline beauty of the water. The colours had to be pure, so I have avoided too much overlapping of washes, especially in the sky which is untainted, crystal blue with pure white clouds. The snow sparkles in the low sunlight and the Orca splash pure white spray. In the meantime, the dark water in the foreground suggests the depths below. I hope I've succeeded in my aims: looking at the painting now, I think so. I hope you do too!

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