Mermaid's Storm - stage 1

As a nice change from the rigid uprights and horizontals of the last two cityscape paintings I have decided to paint another Mermaid picture that concentrates on sky and sea which gives me the chance to paint more natural forms that are conducive to a freer painting style. The lighting is late afternoon with approaching storm clouds, the whole picture will be rich in colour by the use of transparent layers of colour over this stage that was put in with a rag using my usual mixture of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and turpentine. The composition changed radically from my initial sketch that had the sky area only occupying the top quarter of the painting but I was unhappy with the composition and gave much more emphasis to the sky in the final design. The title might just be a working title, we will see as I go along if I think of something better.