Tell England

Tell England 16x20"

For 10 months the Allies tried to take the Dardenelles Straits. More than 200,000 lives were lost on the Gallipoli Peninsula before they were forced to retreat. The title of this piece is from the book by Ernest Raymond which deals with the individual lives of four young Englishmen and how they were affected by their time spent there. "Tell England, ye who pass this monument, We died for her, and here we rest content." is the epitaph written above a makeshift grave of one of the young soldiers, located in a battlefield, overlooking the sea.

The canvas was prepped with cheese cloth, pumice gel and gesso. I was going for four semi-horizontal layers representing the sea, sand, hills and sky. Craft acrylics in greens, cream, medium browns and light blues were used. Palm trees were added, and xerox copies of temporary graves and disembarking soldiers were adhered with matte medium.

The cheesecloth clouds were coloured in with cream glaze

with a touch of denim blue.

The soldier's epitaph furls across the sky and sand. The entire canvas was spattered with the palette of colours.

A small wooden cross, made of broken coffee stirrers and twine,

provides the finishing touch.

I have no idea what's going on with the font size, style and placement - but after 6 attempts to fix it, I've given up - I do apologize for the inconsistency.