Escape - oil on canvas

Here is the piece that I have been working on for the past few weeks that will be hung in the LIFE exhibition tomorrow morning. The exhibition opens on Tuesday night at the Bruce Mason Centre with an auction and 13 people are getting their heads shaved to raise money for the Leukemia and Blood Foundation. My painting is one of 35 in the associated exhibition which lasts for one month and 20% of sales go to the LBF.

It is oil on canvas, 1000 x 600 x 40mm, painted around the sides. I also thought that I would post the photo which started the inspiration for this painting. It was the light over the hill that struck me but I didn't think the composition would work so I played around a bit in my sketch book until I came up with the final version. In hindsight I think I made the fence posts too large, but I was trying to get the feel of being about to walk right through and 'escape' into the beauty of the landscape. I struggled with the perspective of the fence posts and ended up placing cereal boxes on a desk and trying to work out the viewpoint and how they would each look.

I have found it really hard to capture the true colours in the photo of the painting, as the golden part of the sky is more saturated in real life but is washing out in all the photos I have taken and this is the closest I can get.