'Stone and Water' — Cold Wax and Mixed Media on Canvas

'Stone and Water' — Cold Wax and Mixed Media on Canvas

'Stone and Water' brings together two of the most fundamental elements of landscape — the permanence of stone and the transience of water — and explores the relationship between them. Stone endures; water moves. Stone is fixed; water finds its own level. The painting attempts to hold both qualities simultaneously, in a surface that is both solid and fluid.

Cold Wax and the Painted Surface

The painting was made using cold wax medium combined with other materials on canvas. The cold wax gives the surface a particular quality — matte, slightly translucent, with a depth that is both visual and physical. It is a medium that suits the subject: the wax has something of the quality of stone in its solidity, and something of the quality of water in its capacity to be moved and shaped before it sets.

The composition is structured around the contrast between the two elements: areas of dense, textured impasto representing the stone, and areas of smoother, more fluid paint representing the water. The palette is cool and restrained — greys, blues, and the particular green of water over stone.