Let's Sail Away

"Let me sail, let me sail, let the Orinoco flow..." from Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) by Enya

Sail Away was painted entirely by using a palette knife. The thick texture displays the ripples of paint as the sunlight ebbs and flows over the reflections of these colorful sails.

Sail Away by Joan Terrell (sold)

14"w x 11"h x 3/4d  cradled museum quality panel

An original palette knife oil painting

On a clear day with a slight breeze, who wouldn't be tempted to sail away? This painting was inspired by a song by Enya, whose music frequently fills my studio. These are the water soluble oil paints I used and the colors were kept to a minimum. Water soluble seemed like the way to go for a sailboat painting.

I pre-mixed the colors into little piles. I was working from a photo, but am not showing the photo here because I changed it drastically for the painting. Artistic license and all that, you know?

Here's a closer look at my palette. There were three three sizes of palette knives involved, and as you can see, it's handy to keep a pair of pliers around for those pesky, sealed shut, paint tube caps. I scrape the glass palette with a razor blade to clean it and use disposable palette paper on the "wings". It's amazing the amount of paint that can be pre-mixed in a small space. Can you see part of the sketch on the easel/panel?

Then it was just a matter of getting into the groove while listening to Enya and thinking of far away places. The Orinoco river is one of South America’s longest and winds its way through Venezuela and Colombia. I don’t think the Orinoco goes to all the places Enya mentions in her song, but we could certainly picture ourselves in Fiji if we wanted.

There can only be one original painting and many thanks to Jean S. for giving this original oil painting a good home. If you would like to buy a print of Sail Away, please visit my print site at ImageKind.com. There are lots of sizes and options to explore there.

Happy sailing!