Yachts in a wave-tossed ocean - original impressionistic artwork by Al Benge

 

Yachts valiantly battling on storm-tossed waves - this is the subject that I chose for my original composition.  It was enjoyable to create - I first made a layer of light blue ocean, then painted dark, rather forbidding rocky cliffs in the background.  The sky is a deeper hue of blue.  The enjoyable part was splashing on the white - working quickly, and without hesitation, dribbling, splashing, and having great fun in the process. . 
The end of my paintbrush was employed at one stage to scratch white marks on the ocean surface.  I managed also to get a good deal of paint on myself in the course of this painting, which entailed a bit of cleaning up at a later stage.

Rural Australia impressionist painting by Alan J. Benge

This is an outback scene that I painted in acrylics.   I  used a dark brown to indicate the horses and trees - there was no attempt to apply detail as in a representational work - as the idea is to convey an impression rather than specific features.  I contrasted the dark brown splodges with orange and white patches.  There is a hint of a blue range of hills in the distance.  I find it fun to work quite quickly on paintings such as this, because the end result can either be a failure or a success, depending on your point of view.

Impressionistic city street scene by artist Alan J. Benge

In this urban scene, my aim was to portray the wet surface of the road after rain with blurred outlines of buildings on either side of the composition.
The colours were chosen deliberately to enhance the dull mood of the day, with black blobs to represent pedestrians.  Telephone poles added to the background perspective.  The intention was to work quickly, with a loose, relaxed style.  White highlights added while the acrylic paint was wet, added finishing touches to the composition. The picture did not take long to complete - the total time taken was approximately an hour and a half, given the odd halt for a cup of tea and biscuit.