#362 'Sandymouth Beach 10x12"

Last painting in Cornwall. I really enjoyed this part of the world, it helped to have amazing weather, light and skies!
This is a wet sand and sky painting. I worked on the tones - the sand was surprisingly dark and the sea even darker. I tired to paint the waves over the top of the dark sea colour it didn't work so I wiped out wave shapes with kitchen towel and was able to get a better purchase and make the waves light enough.
The wet sand puddles were quite dark too, reflecting the sky in colours. People went into the sea as I was painting which helped with scale and interest.

I did some sketching through the trip so hope to do more paintings of Cornwall in the studio...

#360 'Widemouth Bay' 20x50cm

The North Cornwall surf was so much fun to paint! 
Looking the other way the beach was busy with people, life guards and surfers, it looked interesting but this way attracted me more because of the colours. - Looking into the sun creates strong tonal shapes and less colour, looking away from the sun i.e the light shining directly onto the subject makes the colours strong and less about tonal values.

Although I still worked on the tones I compare what is a similar tone within the subject:
sky and the sand are similar 
The distant sea and the rocks 
Wet sand & foreground sea - squint your eyes and have a go!

The sky was changing with lots going on in it. The foreground rocks helped with composition, the tide was high so only the tops of them stuck out it was good to have the water around them - low tide it's just a mass of rocks.

Spot the ring of sandcastles, they were making them as I was painting, I decided not to include in my painting.

This is one of the those paintings that did it itself. Hardly any wiping off and quite quick to get it all in.They dont all happen like that! 

#359 'Sandymouth Surf' 8x10"

A quickie in the early evening light. I put the marks down and left them, an impression of the moment. 
The people walking into the shallow sea with their boogie boards. The light on the water so strong almost to much to look at it. See pic below...

Beginning stages, rough silhouette of people and waves, yellow base colour before the white light.

I stood right next to the water line but the tide zoomed out so fast it was miles away by the end of the paint.