Petroleum Sea Foam 2

March 27, 2025 by eastcorkpainter in art and tagged abstract, art, contemporary, detailed, foam, niall mccarthy, painting, petroleum, polluted, pollution, realistic, sea, semi abstract | Leave a comment

I recently saw a film about Hilma af Klint’s life. I needed a break from figurative painting so I did something more abstract. Acrylic paint is basically plastic so I wanted to explore the idea of pollution at sea, and how out of place yet beautiful to look at it can be. No two discs are the same. The natural background and white glow is oil paint.

I’ve had a long, rough winter, so when I saw the hydrangea in my front flower bed coming back to life at the start of March, I felt an urgent need to paint it outside. I used a new green, ‘theatre green’ very bright and perfect for capturing the fresh vibrancy of new leaves. The branches painted loosely to highlight their fragility.