Capturing the Exhilaration: Ocean’s Fury

There’s a particular kind of joy that comes from playing in the surf in a sea kayak. It’s fast, dynamic, exhilarating, and it leaves you feeling deeply alive. “Ocean’s Fury” is my attempt to translate that experience onto canvas, to capture in abstract form, what it feels like to be part of that wild dance between water and skill.

The Inspiration

As kayak paddlers, we dress in bright colours that stand out against the blues and greys of the sea. These vibrant oranges, yellows, and reds create a striking contrast against the water, and there’s something deeply optimistic about those colours. To me, hey represent adventure, daring, vitality, and joy.

When you’re riding waves in a kayak, you’re experiencing an incredible integration of forces: the raw power of the sea, the speed of the boat, and your own skill working together to keep you upright and moving. It creates an intimate emotional bond with the ocean that stays with you long after you’ve come ashore.

I wanted to create a painting that captured the excitement of that experience. A work that felt bright and uplifting whilst acknowledging the magnificent force of the water beneath you.

Building the Foundation

I started by applying texture paste to the stretched canvas, creating a tactile surface that would add dimension and movement to the finished work. This textured foundation would later help capture the sense of churning water and dynamic energy.

The First Layers: Warmth and Light

Once the texture was ready, I worked quickly with a four-inch brush, laying down yellows, oranges, reds, and whites across the canvas. I wasn’t overthinking the composition at this stage. Instead, I was building a foundation of warm, soft colours that would glow through the subsequent layers, much like sunlight dancing on water or the bright gear of kayaks and paddlers cutting through waves.

This spontaneous approach felt right for the subject. Kayaking in the surf is about responding instinctively to what’s happening around you. The painting needed some of that same immediacy.

Bringing in the Sea

The following day, I introduced the blues. Working with three different blue tones plus teal and white, I began to define the composition. I started with the darkest values, mixing ultramarine with orange to create deep, powerful tones that would anchor the piece and suggest the weight and force of the water.

Then I built up the lighter colours, weaving in touches of yellow and orange to help integrate the warm underlayers with the cool blues. This colour harmony was crucial. I wanted the painting to feel cohesive whilst maintaining that exciting tension between myself, and the cool power of the ocean.

These colours felt absolutely right. They sang together on the canvas in a way that captured exactly what I was after.

Evaluating the Composition

An important part of my process is stepping back and assessing what I’ve created. I took a photograph of the painting and desaturated it, removing all the colour to see the composition purely in terms of tone and value.

This technique reveals so much. Without colour to distract the eye, you can see whether the composition has a strong tonal range, whether there’s enough contrast, and whether the eye travels through the piece in an engaging way. I was pleased to discover that “Ocean’s Fury” had an interesting and varied tonal structure that gave the painting depth and visual interest beyond just its vibrant colours.

Ocean’s Fury in black and white

The Precious Touch

To complete the work, I added minimal, subtle touches of gold leaf. Gold for the preciousness of our seas, for those moments of pure exhilaration when everything comes together perfectly, and for the way sunlight catches on the crest of a wave.

What It Means

“Ocean’s Fury” is about celebrating the relationship between humans and the sea. It’s about that incredible feeling when you’re working with the ocean’s power rather than fighting against it, when you’re part of something much bigger than yourself yet completely present in your own body and skill.

The painting aims to be both exciting and calming because that’s what the experience is like. Your heart races, your senses are heightened, but there’s also a profound peace that comes from being so completely engaged with the natural world. You’re focused, alive, and deeply connected.

I hope when people look at this painting, they feel some of that energy and optimism. Even if they’ve never sat in a kayak, perhaps they can sense the joy of movement, the beauty of bright colours against wild water, and the incredible gift of experiencing nature’s power firsthand.

The Finished Work

“Ocean’s Fury” is a mixed-media painting on stretched canvas

Size: 24 x 24 inches (60 x 60 cm)

Materials used: texture paste, acrylic paint, and gold leaf.

It celebrates the exhilaration of sea kayaking whilst honouring the magnificent power of our oceans.

What does it make you feel? Does it remind you of your own experiences with the sea, or perhaps inspire you to seek out that kind of adventure? I’d love to hear what the painting suggests to you. I suspect you may have a very different interpretation.