Adri's Palette

I don’t know about you, but I am convinced people either like hot or cold weather. I am definitely one for sunshine and warm breezes. So when it was -18°C/-0.5°F this weekend (yes, you are reading correctly and no, this is not a typo!) I should have been devastated and panicky. Yet my heart felt cheery and warm. Mainly because I kept imagining myself on the dreamy shores of Padstow with lots of sunshine and ships.

I fell in love with this part of England back when I painted my first Cornish harbor painting (see my post here). Then I discovered Kate Whiston’s Instagram account and I became addicted. Whenever I wanted to feel free, warm and happy I would scroll through the pictures and imagine myself there. I already made a quick sketch once. But then one day I saw this harbor with deep blue waters and a yellow ship and I immediately knew this would be perfect for the painting I wanted to make for Mr. AP for Christmas.

The depth of the water’s blue hues captivated me like nothing else before. It felt like a deep well, an abyss I could fall into and never find the surface. One into which I happily and greedily want to jump into. And then the yelllow ship, which no matter how many times I look at it, brings to my heart the warmest and happiest feelings. And there lies the dilemma: which should I choose, the depth or the surface? All I wanted to do was capture this contradiction, this longing on my canvas.

He was extremely happy and very touched. We spent long minutes in silence just looking at it. Then even more time exploring and talking about all its details and… just looking at it. We ended up placing the painting on an easel we have in our dining room. The only issue I see with the placement is, that our meals take considerably longer to finish because both of us are daydreaming of somewhere warmer we want to be. On the other hand the placement is perfect, because when we played the board game Le Havre in there over the weekend, the painting perfectly set the mood for the game.