Monday Painting. Boats at Rest Under a Thunderous Sky.

Does the title of a painting matter?

I ask this because I changed the name of this painting recently to "Boats at Rest Under a Thunderous Sky" as I wanted to give it a visually more descriptive title.

It used to be "Badlands of the Wash". Darkly evocative I thought, but didn't really describe these boats left casually  beached on the marshes.

Mary Kemp
"Boats at Rest Under a Thunderous Sky"
Oil on block canvas
30 x 30 cm

The whole scene had a eerily surreal feeling about it which I wanted to capture with the painting.

We'd gone for a day's sketching at Morston Quay near Blakeney in Norfolk and the weather was not good. It was windy and stormy, the sky was black, then the sun would burst through. It felt at times like the end of the world. I spent the day trying to find shelter from the wind and drawing boats quickly and roughly with cold hands.

This whole thing leaves me wondering about the titles of paintings. Should they be descriptive, "Green Boat, Blue Sea"? or should they be a little more mysterious "Sailing the Seven Seas?" Does it matter? I don't know.

Any ideas?

Do leave me a comment in the box below, I'd love to know what you think.