Beach scene Archives - Margaret Hall Fine Art

Good morning everyone. Today I wanted to show you another one of my sunshiny paintings – finished at last! As you have probably realised, I like to complete projects fairly promptly, before I forget all my ideas. And, this one was started a couple of months ago. So, it only needed a few finishing touches and at last I got round to it.

For example, I strengthened the figures so that you can spot them better.

And I also tried to make the background recede further back by blurring the vegetation on the headland. In addition, I dulled the colour of the sand near the cliff, so that it seemed more distant.

As you may have guessed, this is a bay in Australia, somewhere, sadly, I have never been. But, I really enjoyed painting this as part of the online course I am following. Plus the fact that , in these dull, cold winter days, it cheers me up just looking at it! Actually, I might frame it and hang it on my wall so that I can feel its warmth everyday.

Finally, here’s another of my sunshiny paintings. In fact, I did this a couple of years ago and, there is some memory painted into it. Because I visited France many times and well remember walking down streets like these. Always on the shady side of the street!

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Hello everyone. Well, as promised, I’d like to show you my gouache painting now it’s finished. Yes, yet more gouache experiments ! Just to remind you, here I wanted to use the paint in the same way as I use acrylics. That is, applied quite thickly to the paper . And, also, using bigger more gestural brushstrokes. As you can see, I really enjoyed the freedom of using the paint this way. I could allow myself go to town on painting the shape of the rocks and pebbles in the path.

To be honest, I didn’t take this photo myself. But it reminded me so much of the seaside closest to where I live . The Yorkshire coast here in the UK can be quite spectacular with its steep cliffs and rock beaches. So, I must give a shout out to L J George for the permission to use this lovely photo, on the Artists Free Reference Photos Facebook page.

Yet More Gouache Experiments

Now, I must admit, this is not the best urban sketch style painting I have ever made. But I’d like to explain why I’m showing it. To explain, a couple of weeks ago, I met with two friends to go sketching en plein air. However, it was raining too heavily, so we went into a sweet, little cafe nearby. And we were chatting all the time, not having seen each other face to face for months. Bliss! But, when I got home, I was dying to do some sketching. And so I tried to recreate the scene from memory. As you can see, my visual memory is not so good! But, I’m sure the exercise must have been good for me. Click here to see a more successful urban sketch , drawn from life, outside, a few weeks ago in Wentworth.

The Experimental Bit

In this little painting , I tried to indicate that the trees through the window in the car park were obviously further away. And more indistinct than the figures and the furniture etc in the cafe. Also, I tried to indicate the shapes of the figures using deeper colours in the shading on the clothing. I know, just baby steps – but it sometimes feels like going back to the beginning ! And, my friend really did order a banana with her coffee !