Waiting Room 2 Painting

Patience and hope are the key themes for these people in natures Waiting Room 2. I captured this image on a beautiful winters day off Collaroy’s coastline. When the sun is low on the horizon with a light coastal breeze, especially in winter, the sea sparkles. The intensity of the light on the sea has rendered these surfers as animated silhouettes. The sport of surfing rests on the surfer’s ability to wait patiently for the ocean to produce the perfect wave. In this scene the surfers in the middle of the painting are in light conversation, but all are still scanning the horizon for “the one”. Floating above them are wave ski riders; the essential odd ones out in every waiting room. They are not part of the waiting room conversation as their water craft are too different to be considered a regular. When I sketched “The Waiting Room”, I wanted to understand the animation hiding within the black shadows. To understand the body language, I first painted the figures without being silhouettes. Then as the painting progressed I emulated the winter effects of the sun, shadow and water to capture the essence of a morning surf in winter. One ski rider is twisting his head and shoulders towards a new hope on the horizon. At the top right of the painting the sparkles from the sun on the water are intensified in anticipation of a change in the swell. He’ll need to start a fast paddle, before the other surfers do, if he hopes to catch the next wave.