The Re-enactors Painting

The context for this painting was a Marine Festival at the Gloucester Docks UK in 2007. I have nurtured a concept for this painting since that date. The participants were dressed in various navel uniforms and I was taken by the late 19th century British naval figures. There was an awareness by the adolescent men of playing at being sailors, I wanted to paint that look.
 The work consists of an acrylic base coat of burnt orange, then applied with Rowney Cryla thinned pigment using Liquidex airbrush medium. Plus opaque pigments with more subsequent layers of colour washes. This layering of the work allows for subtle tonal attributes that give depth, intensity and texture. Finished with a coat of Winsor & Newton Satin UV varnish, this not only protects the painting, but has a unifying effect. A suggested frame width of at least 60mm or more for this size painting. Narrow frames on large paintings have tendency to not sit well and have a habit of warping.