French coast near Biarritz (2016)Oil painting by Stephen Abela

this painting is sold un-stretched, and needs to be put on a stretcher before hanging.

this work is based on a found old photograph, shows families and sun worshipers on the beach on a hot sunny summer day in the 1980s.

My painting is based on various sources, from vintage postcards, holiday photos, to film stills or a personal bank of images.
I have a particular interest in beach, pool and summer references. I like this subject-matter as it seems to allow me to deal
with painting on many levels. I can play with an impressionist type colour palette, I can paint the figure. In Composition,
some beach/pool scenes are not unlike some Venetian and Baroque paintings,
Titian, Veronese..and so it has this historical dimension. I am also drawn to depictions of leisure as
beach or pool is a place where people are partly naked yet unaware and in a 'natural' setting
so in some way this subject matter is timeless. I am drawn on the other hand to a nostalgic pleasure and it is difficult for me
to separate the two, nostalgia from the depiction of pleasure if not impossible. This intersection is what I find interesting.

Materials used:

oil and canvas

Details:

• Oil painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 101.6 x 71.12 x 1.27cm (unframed) / 101.6 x 71.12cm (actual image size)
• Signed on the back
• Style: Impressionistic
• Subject: Landscapes, sea and sky

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