Beach sunset

This large painting is of Freshwater West Beach in South Wales was commissioned by a couple who got engaged there at sunset a few years ago. It was a tricky composition and I have seen photos and paintings of this beach taken from the sand dunes further round the bay but Mr and Mrs Leppard wanted the view from the south side of the bay. I started by drawing a grid onto a 24 x 48" deep edge box canvas and a corresponding grid on my reference photo so I could get the rocks in the right places.Then I painted the edges dark red to tie the canvas into the couple's room decor. I built up texture on the canvas using texture paste then painted the shadows and rocks in black. Next I added colour, building up from light to dark and referring to a variety of alternative photographs of sunsets and skies. My aim was to create a mood rather than a totally realistic sunset as originally the brief was to limit the painting to just three colours.