SEASCAPES IN PROGRESS

Today was another day in the studio working on the thumbnails I did on Friday.  I have decided to work through each one in turn and then review the studies to decide which to take further.  In order to make a start, I got the charcoal out, and focused on the view from Applecross over the coral beach towards Skye.  Using a large sheet of paper I made a few marks.

Emerging sketch Coral Beach and beyond copyright Aileen Grant

I carried on with oilbar, oil crayons, white acrylic and black and blue ink, and the picture ended up looking like this.

Coral Beach and Beyond copyright Aileen Grant

This looks a bit overworked, so I decided to stop. I'm considering adding a bit more texture for the sea and the beach. Maybe also a bit more work on the sky over Skye.  It could be another in the black and white series.
After this, I wanted to do a bit of colour and so I had a go at a picture of the shingle spit at Lochcarron.  I gessoed up a sheet of paper for a change and then, before I realised it, the picture was taking shape and looked like this..

Emerging colour study Shingle spit with boat copyright Aileen Grant

Actually, looking at it now, I think it looks quite good.  Maybe I should have stopped there. But, no, I ploughed on - what a fool I am!  To be honest, I was trying to get the right colour for the sea - that purply navy blue colour - and while I was painting I was thinking about a particular picture by Arthur Melville. I think it was the combination of the rich blue sea, the white boat and the orange of the seaweed.  This then became a goal for me.  This was where I took it to.

Colour study Shingle Spit copyright Aileen Grant

Have I overworked this? I'm not sure.  I think some parts of the picture look a bit overworked, and I don't think I should have added the green.  But this is just a colour study, and between the two versions I think I have enough for a further picture using oils.  I do like the richness of the colour (but I'm afraid this got the thumbs down from Peter, so maybe I should limit this to just a small oil picture).  This richness of colour is a bit different from another study I did on Friday.

Colour study Attadale View copyright Aileen Grant

This view is based on the view south over Loch Carron. In this study I used a much more resticted palette than I used today - I added a little yellow today to bring the foreground out. I don't like these colours as much as the Shingle Spit picture with the navy blue sea, but on the other hand, I quite like the trees, and there is potential to explore the atmospheric aspects if I take this picture further.  Plenty of scope for future work.