Introduction to my seascape painting journey:

When peoples complement me by saying “is there anything you cannot paint”, the answer comes to my head is “seascape” as I always felt like I shouldn’t jump into painting a seascape until I do a thorough study on that subject.

By end of March when I was thinking of renewing my membership with Lex Art, my good friend and co-chair of Painters guild told me that they are organizing upcoming show on the theme New England coastline. I took this as opportunity to attempt the subject that I haven’t tried so far.

How did I come to the idea of the composition:

I started with digging through millions of photos I captured in past decades of new England beaches, costal cities. And this took me more than a week to go though all the photographs and decide which one to pick. Realizing that the submission deadline is approaching in just three weeks, I made my mind to do only one painting instead of three paintings. I was finding it difficult to decide what things to keep in my composition for the painting.

One sleepless night, an idea knocked my head … what if I take the “creativity freedom” little further and include all the significant elements of coastal life in one canvas. Next day my family and artist friends warned me not to throw myself in this super challenging adventure. The signal I received from them encouraged me more to push my boundaries towards that adventure and by end of the following day I was determined to start working on my idea.

And the Journey began…

I listed down all the major elements that are the biggest attractions in New England’s coastline:

1. 3-4 different types of beaches (sandy, rocky, small rocks/pebbles, beach with trees)
2. Different age groups (kids, adults, seniors) enjoying the beach
3. Peoples enjoying the sea by surfing, boating, riding small yacht, sailboat
4. Life in water: Mother and a playful baby whale
5. Life in the beach-air: seagulls
6. Main attraction: splashing waves
7. Beautiful small island

Now incorporating all of them in one view could be possible only if I shift my view point from front to top. The biggest challenge was to constantly reminding myself about the topology point of view every time I was adding a new component to the composition. Honestly at some point I thought of watching youtube videos of other artists paintings seascape, but then I dropped that idea as I didn’t want to influence my very own organic painting style. I spent a lot of time to study the sea from my previously taken photographs. For a couple of elements like yacht, sailboat I used some reference photos from internet. For the human figures, I asked my kids and husband to give pose and took photo from upstair loft.

Artist statement for this painting:

One of the most significant secrets behind New England’s beauty lies in its Coastlines. While going through my photo albums, I got carried away with many memories we created during our summer trips in the past. As I tried to close my eyes to select one of those seascapes, what flashes to me is a big canvas where all the attractions are not only co-existing, also enjoying the coastal life with harmony. 

Hope you too enjoy the NE coastline journey with me through my eyes. 

Acrylic on 24 X 36 inch (2x3feet) canvas. Time duration: 70hrs.

Click below link to see available products of this painting:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/coastlines-at-a-glance-sudakshina-bhattacharya.html

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/coastlines-at-a-glance-sudakshina-bhattacharya.html

Happy to share the news that two of my big seascape paintings “New England coastlines at the glance” and “Portland Headlight” have been selected for Lex Art juried show.

Juror, Jennifer Montgomery Johnson had the overwhelming task of selecting just 45 paintings out of total 162 submissions.

The exhibition will be open on 20th May and will run through 12th June. The opening reception is Sunday, May 22nd, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

My another submission “Beauty of a fearless fall” and few more small seascapes will be displayed in the gallery and also they are available for buying. Message me if interested private showing.