Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inch

‘River Wandle’ is inspired by the river that runs past my house. The river is important to me as it is a place I often find myself when I'm anxious and need to think. The verb wandle means to move haltingly, stopping and starting, primarily due to uncertainty and lack of confidence, which I resonate with as a fairly shy individual.
The river is teeming with life, from fish to insects, and I wanted to show that in the energetic marks in the foreground, using a larger brush than the rest of the piece.
I kept some areas a lot thinner, using linseed oil to draw the focus to the intermingling of the white and blue tones through the use of the delicate smoke-like marks. I used a dried sea sponge to stamp on the paint and glide it along the canvas to create ripples. I then used the same stamps to pick up paint from the right side of the piece.