May scream is not a comment on my state of mind! Away from the cycling circuit that has it’s major events in Europe, I look for local inspiration to create paintings that will capture people in motion. This painting is one of a series reflecting motion through the choice of colour and expressive application of paint to represent the night sky punctured by the lights from fairground rides. Can you hear the screams?
At the annual Hereford May Fair, standing underneath the ride as it spun on it’s axis, with the arm weighted at one end, the chair holding four young braves who just may scream. My neck craning back as the ride reached higher than the buildings surrounding it. Photographing the ride to capture the colour and the motion, after it had held the riders at the top, and then spun their chair at a rate of knots towards the ground.
May Scream
Back in the studio the images were played in a slideshow on the trusty iPad whilst I built up background layers of colour over a couple of days to enable them to dry and remain bright. Before stepping back at arms length to capture the motion in sweeping strokes. After that had dried it was a few touches with square brush so that for those who want to look closely they can make out the jeans of the riders!
The expressive acrylic painting has a semi-abstract quality to it. It is an A4 size image, 29.7 x 21 cm, which was mounted then framed in a wood frame coloured silver for exhibition with Herefordshire Art and Craft Society throughout October 2015 at Cafe @ All Saints in Hereford.
Other fun fair inspired paintings can be found by looking in the Fun Fair category in the Paint Store.
