Petite-Ile, La Reunion

In the south there is an area called Petite-Ile, the water is very rugged so the beach there is not safe to swim at, in fact they had a sign saying that you could die here... citing shark attacks and rough water as the main potential dangers. The sand was cool too, it was a mixture of white coral and black volcanic rock, I took a small sample for the collection. This scene was up on the embankment, looking towards the south. The rain was just about to come on, so the clouds thick and the scene kind of grey, yet still warm feeling.

I have always tried to emulate Monet's technique that he used in his materpiece 'Field of Poppies' which of course was an oil painting. He placed thin layers of sky-blue on the field to give the feeling of the light from the sky reflecting off the grass. The same type of effect was needed in this painting, but it is impossible to put light blue on top of anything when you are doing watercolours, so instead I started by painting a purply/blue field, then waited for it to nearly dry, then on top layered on the greens and organges of the grass. Finally, I put on top some suggestion of grass texture, the details not too much, and a little palm tree effect too near the foreground. In homage to Monet, I also left in the little peach-red flowers on the shrub. Incidentally, I once copies the "Field of Poppies' using acrylic, it is the long lost Monet sketch that will one day be discovered and sold for millions, as long as nobody notices that Monet used oils that is....

Watercolour, 5x7" cold press, 2011