Islands

My Inspiration

When I looked out the window of the plane I saw the sea dotted with natural islands below me; a beautiful sight of blues, greens and greys. However I found my mind drifted to the ‘islands of plastic’ that I had recently seen in a National Geographic magazine. Once again the beauty of nature was in conflict with man’s destruction of this nature. This dichotomy is portrayed in this piece.

Process

I decided on an abstract composition for this piece. I laid down the foundations in paint. Repeat patterns mirroring the islands became an important aspect of it. After a week’s experimentation I eventually chose the colour palette. Essentially the piece is made from three colours, yellow, magenta and turquoise. The neutral greys are made from mixing these colours together in varying degrees. I found shiny transparent plastic sheets. I cut these into ovals and later painted them in neutral colours. They came to symbolise the artificial islands of plastic man has created.