From Marion Boddy-Evans,
Your Guide to Painting.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

Most of the painting was done as a series of glazes. The first round of glazes saw me using cerulean blue deep for the sky, cerulean blue for the sea, and transparent red oxide for the sand.

This was applied to the canvas by squeezing a bit of paint from the tube onto the brush, applying brush to canvas, then dipping the brush into a mug of clean water and thinning the paint on the canvas. I don't try to even out the paint, especially where it's depicting sea, but rather leave some areas darker than others (where the paint is thicker).

This painting technique is likely to have purists shuddering, because if you were glazing 'properly', you'd thin the paint to the required consistency before putting it on the canvas. But there are two reasons I do it this way.

The first is that the variation in color will build up to give the sense of wave movement in the sea. The second is that in places the paint runs down the canvas, creating watery 'tide marks' that add texture to the painting -- in this photo it's particularly visible in the sand. Again, this will build up through the layers and create a sense of water in the painting.