The fish padlock

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Such a great image and so personal to you - like your lovely 'Red shoes' I think it's a great idea to paint what you so obviously love - and very appropriate that you are called Peter! [ think keys to the gates of heaven!]

Hi Debs, thanks very much for your (heavenly) comments! Much appreciated ; )

What a wonderful object, and I love the story you told about it. My son, who loves both India and fishing would be envious of your possession, and the way you've painted it is so effective and life like, Peter.

Thanks for your comments Jane ;)

I started this painting of my beloved fish padlock a couple of months ago. The padlock is a weighty lump of hand-incised brass and is accompanied by a more golden-coloured key. I bought this beautiful piece of handmade Indian art on Ebay a few years ago from India and though I wish I could say I had an exclusive 'fishing tackle shed', it does appropriately guard my fishing gear in my garden shed. Painting-wise, my original, half-baked creative attempt was painted in gouache and not working at all on the strongly-coloured pastel paper, so I abandoned it. The whole thing was wishy-washy, so undeserving of something so chunky and strong and I didn't know what to do with it. Revisiting it today, I covered the whole coloured image in black Indian ink, creating a black silhouette and started again. This time with soft pastels working in darkest colours first over the black, finishing with the highlight. I then painted the scales, keyhole and fin lines in ink and finally, acheived a good result. Indian ink and soft pastel on Daler Rowney Murano (warm colours) Pastel Paper (160gsm).