Oil and acrylic on canvas
140 x 100 cm
This is the second version of a painting I made while on the Mark Rothko International Plein Air painting residency (see album) in Daugavpils, Latvia, in 2012. It was part of a series I painted about flying into Riga airport.
For this version I stretched my own canvas because I wanted to see how the colours used in the first version would respond to a fairly thick canvas. In my original series I was especially interested in Latvian Green which I saw everywhere in many shades, from painted wooden houses to money. The inspiration for the series was the approach to Riga airport. At that point you are coming in from the sea and down below you can see winding rivers, dark forested areas, small colourful houses, sandy areas and the winding shape of the river Daugava. I wanted to play with colours and shapes and to extend them further. In this second version the green of the river Daugava is more worked on and into. I layered many shades of green. Though I kept some shapes from the first version, this version has allowed further colours and organic shapes to emerge.
Date: 09/01/2015
Photographer: Fiona Stanbury