Sea Gazing.... Wave watching and Surfing with a Paintbrush

Mother nature and the storms stripped the beaches of sand ,ancient petrified forests have been exposed along the coast, as well as the fibre optic cabling and items lost overboard years ago are appearing on the strand line. In the 90’s a container of Lego was lost overboard off Lands End. It has been turning up all along the coast after all this time and people are posting their finds onto Lego Lost at Sea, a facebook page. There have been endless opportunities for beach cleans, but it looks like the last of the storm surges are over.

Beach walks had been limited to rock hopping and walking the made up paths. But mother nature is truly wonderful and in just a week,sand has been brought in by gentle surf by the bucket load and finally we can walk miles of sand at low tide.

I can now stand and sea g aze without beingin danger of being swept of my feet, have time to analyse and take in the movement of the waves instead of being blown away. Two months ago it was impossible to focus or keep up with the frenetic movement of such a huge body of water.

I have two large paintings to finish for my exhibition, “The View from the Shore” Not intentionally leaving the biggest until last, it’s more a case of space as they take up a lot of room, but now the pressure is on to get them completed.

I often get totally absorbed into the painting process, but with this one really started to feel the rhythm of the sea, movement and sound as I moved the brush around creating the wave shapes. I felt immersed in it, imagining I was experiencing what a surfer does, except I had a paintbrush and no surfboard. On reflection, it probably had a lot to do with memory of spending so much time wave watching over the past few months, but hey I still like to think I was surfing my own wave.