Studio Monday

Trying to settle down to some new work.  Have been looking at my sketches and at some photos and working through these in a slightly different way.

I thought I'd start in watercolour, to help me to think in colour.  So I did this little watercolour thumbnail sketch of the Coral Beach. Then I tried to think about the motif in a more abstract way.

I also tried to sketch out ideas for the Applecross sandy beach in the same way.  Here are the initial thumbnails. Starting out realistically, then becoming more abstract.

 I followed this up by trying small pictures.  The interplay of shapes is interesting and the shape of the space between the shapes.  Although I was trying to take a more abstracted approach, this one turned out to be quite realistic.

 So I tried again with more dramatic blocks of colour. Also thinking about the play of light. This is as far as I got.

 It's quite interesting, but probably not sufficiently abstract in treatment. 

It's good to play with ideas like this.  I think the sandy beach with Skye on the horizon is quite a good motif and worth exploring further.  I had intended doing this today but it was such a LOVELY day that I skived off.  Well, I ended up doing a little sketching in North Berwick, so it was not a total holiday. And my excuse is that I do want to work on some East Lothian pictures....