SUMMER ON FORMBY BEACH – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Here’s the view into the sun that you get on this coast in the afternoon, when the light coruscates off the sea and wet surfaces and the paddlers are just dark outlines in the distance. There is a mystery about it.

Besides, I need a few more sea-side paintings and so it was a good opportunity to try this approach. Perhaps the foreground group is a bit dark, but they are a foil for the distant figures and the glistening sea.

Other seaside paintings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

ACROSS THE MERSEY ESTUARY – ACRYLIC PAINTING

In January I did some sketches based on a Christmas walk we took and posted the results shortly after. I thought that I might transfer one of them to a canvas.

With this view of the Mersey I wanted more contrast in the sky, more coherent grasses, and greater emphasis on the complementaries between land and sky. I had an old canvas that I had started to gesso over – so I completed the job and got to work on the painting.

I didnt use many brushes on this one. It was mainly fingers blending the few colours on the estuary and sky and then finger blending another set of colours on the marram grass covering the dunes. Then I put some masking tape down and found a brush to render the far shore and flick in some waves on the water. A bigger brush sculpted some texture to the grasses – added a few birds and the job was done.

It’s not much, but that’s what it’s like around here.

Other landscapes and seascapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

EARLY BIRDS AT FORMBY POINT – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Another beach painting for a planned upcoming solo exhibition. This is Formby beach early on a promising summer’s morning, as the crowds gather.

Having just returned with all my paintings, unsold, from a local exhibition yesterday and next week picking up another unsold painting from a long running exhibition, things feel far from promising. After a bright start to the year, I seem to have have sailed into the doldrums. You question yourself, your subjects, even the economic climate. Probably a mixture of all three with changing fashions and market saturation thrown in.

Fortunately I enjoy the process and challenges of painting, but the studio can get overrun with stock building up and, with it, a feeling of talking to yourself.

Plenty of choices for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

AFTERNOON ON THE BEACH – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Another in the beach series.

I loved the light bounching off sea and wet sand, the figures silhouetted and casting long shadows and splashes of colour breaking through against the dull background, as light penetrates fabrics and plastics.

I had a bit of trouble with this at the start, as I wanted the foreground figures to be much larger, but when I drew it, the perspective and, with it, the illusion of depth, was lost. I had to either flatten and thereby compress the field of vision or, as I have done, make the figures smaller and get that long view to the horizon.

Hopefully you get the feel of a sunny day on Formby beach as the afternoon edges towards evening.

Other beach scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

BROKEN FENCES – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I did this a week or so ago as part of my beach series. Which, having spoken to Glyn, my framer yesterday, I can display in his window around Christmas.

This one though, I wasnt too happy with it. Then, a couple of days ago, I decided to add some walkers, a dog, and gulls to the right hand side. Small details, but they seemed to balance the piece and I’m now happier with it. As you probably already know, I’m a sucker for a broken fence. Then, couple that with the strong diagonal and it had my full attention.

I think now there’s a feeling of completeness about it.

Other beach scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

SUNDOWN AT FORMBY POINT – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I had a bit of trouble with this one. It was so easy going in too dark too early which then seriously limited further options. With a bit of messing about I think I managed to get the subtlties in the dark areas – though the sea is coming up a bit too blue on this image – it is greyer.

It was a wonderful evening down there that day. I had done a bit of sketching and taken some photographs. It looked like it could be worth hanging around for the sunset and it certainly was.

Afterwards I headed home for something to eat, but the numbers on the beach and others making their way down, made me realise that perhaps the party was only starting.

I’m getting to old for that – I’ll just stick to the painting.

Other beach paintings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

DESCENDING TO THE BEACH – PASTEL PAINTING

Another in the beach series of paintings. The bright afternooon light illuminating the trodden path to the beach. Reflected light from marram grass made it look like a fibre-optic light display and in the distance strollers explore the tidal expanse.

I’ll just need to remember to get that horizon line level.

Other beach scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

REMEMBER THOSE DAYS? – PASTEL PAINTING

The promise of a day at the seaside. The anticipation and then the joy as the sea came, at last, into view.

There is a boardwalk at Formby, which lifts you over the final dune from where you get the first sight of the sea before dropping you down onto the seemingly endless expanse of beach below. It’s enough to set those small legs running.

Another beach scene, this time with a bit of human narrative. I guess we can all remember those days. For me it was Camber Sands in Sussex which has similar dunes and beach and created similar feelings in a young boy.

Other seaside paintings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

ENCROACHING TIDE – PASTEL PAINTING

Another in my Beach Series with a clutch of defeated trees still standing on the edge of the dunes at Formby – but not for much longer.

I was going to include this in an exhibition next month. It is on a pastel paper I have just started using. This paper is slightly bigger than my old support and having maximised the image to the paper I am finding that it’s looking a bit cramped when I place the painting in one of my standard mounts.

I’m feeling a bit like the trees – hemmed in with my options limited. But I think the painting is worth a showing, nonetheless.

Other beach scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

SHIFTING SANDS OF FORMBY – PASTEL PAINTING

The compilation of a set of beach paintings in readiness for the upcoming exhibition season continues. Here is a scene of Formby Point as the sun drops low in the autumn afternoon. I was pleased with the reflected light off the streams and pools trapped by the sandbanks and the contrast between the dry and saturated sand.

Perhaps a lack of colour – but then, that’s how it is, and putting in some strollers would, I felt, have broken the spell of the moment.

Other beach scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com