New painting - "Flare"

I had trouble deciding what to paint this weekend. Having had a busy week at work with little time to go and buy a new canvas or research reference images, I made the decision to buy a 90x60cm one at the last possible minute and would then have to choose something to paint afterwards that would work at that size and shape.

I have been planning out my stand for Art on the Prom for several weeks now, so that I know how many new paintings I need to do to fill the large 7m x 2m space. The good thing about planning out my stand is that it also shows me what kind of colours I have used on the paintings that I'm going to be exhibiting. This year was so far going to be quite dark colour-wise, but the edition of "Golden Tops" a couple of weeks ago, and this weekend's new painting "Flare" means that I will now have injected a good amount of colour into the stand!

I have painted "Flare" in acrylics, and used more colours on my palette than I think I ever have before! The title comes from not only the exciting array of colours on the canvas, but also the suggestion of a forest fire taking hold in the background. Feel free to interpret the title's meaning as you see fit...

Like most of my paintings, this is designed to provoke ideas and emotions as to where the place in the picture could be and how it makes the viewer feel. I personally got drawn in by both the multitude of colours and my desire to emphasise the dark areas to create real depth in the painting. I would like to walk through this forest and see what might be lurking through the trees.... not sure I'd want to do that on my own though...!