Norfolk is the nearest coastline for me, reachable for a day working plein air; usually in oil paints, though sometimes in watercolour/mixed media, charcoal or pen and wash.
These sketches often become finished pieces in their own right but their primary concern is to get to know a place, to observe the particular colours and light of a day, time or season. Light and colour change rapidly and the tide ebbs and flows fast going out a long way, leavng glistening pools. Sometimes the colours are muted and subtle, particularly in the winter - lavenders, greys, slate blues - at another time the sky and the sea will be intensely blue and the sand looking almost apricot.
Larger pieces are studio based, smalller pieces usually plein air work. After collecting material, I then work in the studio developing these larger canvasses, paintings or prints and often abstracting and playing with colours to enhance the sense of time and place.
