Temple on the Sea- Trinidad West Indies

"In 1947 Siewdass Sadhu a devote Hindu built a temple near the seaside on land owned by sugar cane company Tate and Lyle. He was persecuted for trespassing and fined £100 or 14 days in jail. The temple was demolished. He vowed to rebuild his temple on no man's land! He started working toward realizing his dream. His great fete was one of determination. He moved soil and land firstly by bucket and bicycle. After many years of difficult laboring, he managed a pathway 200m out into the gulf. It took him 25 years to build his temple. However after his death in 1970 the ocean reclaimed his dream temple.
See Website here for Temple on the Sea


And that story has intrigued me since I first saw the Temple on the Sea. It seems like the kind of story that Disney would snatch up and make a animated cartoon out of.
I have been trying to depict this Temple in a painting, but I didn't just want to paint a landscape. This painting has been a step by step process. Usually I would have an idea what I want a painting to look like when it is done, but for this one, it was experimental, and I had to go with the flow.

The sky was a process where the acrylic paint was diluted to a wash and dripped onto the canvas board. Then I shook the canvas back and forth to let the paint run. This took several days, as each layer of a different colour was left to dry for one day.

After sketching out the basic shape, I didn't know what to do, so it sat there for about two weeks till my brain wrapped around the issue.


Then I saw some henna Mehandi designs on someone recently and that sparked a way to finish the painting. Mehandi influenced designs were added:

This is a detail of the painting.

The final Painting. Temple on The Sea- Acrylic on canvas board 20" x 24"