Mermaid's Storm

After the rigid horizontals and verticals of my recent cityscape paintings I chose to paint something more Romantic and nature-based. It is a JW Waterhouse-influenced picture of a well-built mermaid (as a femme fatale) that has spotted a distant sailing ship on the horizon and has called up a storm to sink it. So it's a Romantic but not necessarily nice picture of a mermaid, they were after all depicted as luring sailors to their death either by calling up a storm or playing a lyre that casts a spell over the approaching sailors! I wanted a richly coloured picture to which end I have again used more transparent paints and glazes over my usual tonal monochrome underpainting. This will be a contender to take to Illuxcon in September. Oil on canvas 11 3/4"x 31 1/2". There is a step-by-step progress though this painting in previous posts on this blog.