FROM WATER TO OIL

I painted in watercolour for over 30 years and once in awhile I decide that one of my old watercolour compositions might work well in oil.  The original watercolour for the oil below was painted in the mid 1980's.  The subject is a group of rowboats pulled up on the beach in St. Ives, Cornwall.  I have always loved painting old boats and enjoyed trying to capture the transition between dry and wet sand. It worked very well in watercolour and I think I managed to get the same effect with oil. 

Five Small Boats, oil, 18x18

OUT OF THE MIST

Last week I met with friends to paint at a local beach.  A lovely sunny autumn morning.  Or so we thought.  A few hundred yards from the sea, we hit a wall of fog.  Not quite what we expected but it was very beautiful.  The friend who picked the spot insisted that there were several islands and a shoreline with houses out there in the mist but we couldn't see a thing when we first arrived. 

It was interesting to see what emerged from the mist over the next few hours