Contemporary Seascape Painting

The Swimmers

48 x 64″

acrylic on canvas

Greetings,

You up for a swim? The Swimmers is a new, contemporary seascape painting made for my solo art show opening in a few weeks. I am posting a sneak preview: it’s the largest painting of the show.  It features two lifeguard towers overlooking a wild sea.

The paradox in the painting.

All the elements of the painting, except for the towels, indicate a dangerous time and place to swim. The whole painting is set up so that you would not expect to see swimmers at the beach. Yet towels are hanging which suggests people are swimming despite the obvious danger. There is also beauty and vitality implied along with the danger that the swimmers encounter. It exposes a paradox where human beings are drawn to the beauty and power of nature but our survival in it is not guaranteed. This painting is also meant to be a metaphor for humankind’s troubled relationship with nature.

I’ve painted lifeguard towers for many years now. I always use the same lifeguard tower drawing from my studies and I use them in different contexts to elicit certain emotional states and ideas. I love the way subtlety makes the big picture.

I’ve made a simple, elegant maple hardwood frame which shows it off nicely.

Please mark your calendars for November 16th, the opening day of my Laguna Beach show at Sue Greenwood Fine Art. The show runs through the holidays, up until January 2022. I’ll be sending out an invitation for the Artist Reception for my subscribers so please sign up below if you would like to receive one.

Mark