It’s hot here. 40° degrees C or 104°Fahrenheit. It’s hard to work outside, except early in the morning. We’re under siege. The shutters on the house stay shut until after sunset. It works. The house stays cool and most of the windows in my studio face north.
Was that why I started painting the sea and its creatures? To bring the cool blue into this hot dry place? That might have been part of it, part of why I enjoy it, why it makes me feel happy.
I’m painting sardines, Sardine pilchardus. I am calling it Sardine Shoal, though in the sea it would be only a tiny part of the huge murmurations of sardines that makes up a shoal. Like many fish sardine numbers are under pressure from over fishing. Some scientists think that sardines help to keep the sea healthy and reduce the amount of methane sent into the atmosphere.
This painting will go in my forthcoming show, Coast, this November at the Flying Colours Gallery in Chelsea.
Here is a detail.
If you would like to be kept informed of forthcoming exhibitions please email me at catherineforshall@yahoo.co.uk
Photographs taken in the Lot, France © James Forshall
Catherine Forshall 