Beach and tree, Seychelles

Maybe I can't be on the beach right now but I can go through my old paintings and look at the beach scenes and try to remember what a sunny day looked like! This one is in quite a different location compared to the last one I posted which was Dominican Republic. The Seychelles are a small group of islands composing a country (called the Seychelles), best known for blistering white topaz sand beaches, emerald water, and lots of palm trees. The composition for this painting is very similar to one I did here on the island of Montreal recently at Oka beach. It was obviously very hot there in the Seychelles, you can tell that I was sitting under some shade when I painted this one.

Beach scenes are deceptively difficult to paint properly. I was kidding around in the last post about how much one has to practice it, but it really does make a difference. After painting beaches in Spain, Carolina, Florida, Mexico, Dominical Republic, and even Canada (Grand Bend) the Seychelles trip was a real test. One thing to capture is the blending of the sand colour with the shallow water colour. That creates the golden turquoises. Then it blends into either purples or blues depending on depth, with varying amounts of surf. You also have to remember the foot step impressions in the sand!

Beach and tree, Seychelles, 5 x 7" cold press watercolour, 2011 (No. 1273)