View from Hardy Monument, Dorset

Description

View from Hardy Monument, Dorset Original Silk Painting and Signed Giclee Prints

A while ago I was commissioned to paint a view in Evershot in Dorset. While I was down there I took the opportunity to explore the area and came across the Hardy Monument. Contrary to my expectations, this is not a monument to the great Thomas Hardy whose books were often set in this beautiful county but to?Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy of ‘Kiss Me Hardy’ fame. The monument stands 22m high and a climb to the top is rewarded with breath-taking 360 degree views of the Dorset coast and countryside. On a clear day you can see from Start Point in the West to the Needles in the East. I was struck by the beautiful combinations of purple heather, golden grasses and a sea that really was this blue.

My paintings are mainly painted on pure Chinese habotai 8 silk with specialist silk paints. I start each work with a drawing on paper and then trace the image onto a piece of white silk stretched onto a wooden frame. I then apply a special paint called gutta, which contains natural latex called gutta-percha, over my traced lines. This creates a resistive barrier through which the coloured ink will not flow. I apply the coloured ink with a brush and use salt dropped into the ink whilst wet to created textured effects.

The finished painting is removed from the wooden frame, ironed to fix the colour in the fabric and stretched onto acid-free mountboard ready for framing.

Visit my?YouTube Channel?to see how my paintings are created and click?here?to read a bit more about me.

A signed giclee print is printed on fine art 308gsm paper using archival inks and is signed by the artist. It will come mounted in white and packed with a backing board in biodegradable cellophane. It is an open edition so there is no limit to the number of reproductions that can be made. The following size prints are available: