Our North Sea coast is special, but I only learned that when I realised that other coast lines have rocks, cliffs, pebble beaches or.. no sand beach and sand dunes. For me all this sand was 'normal' but now I really appreciate our coast much more.
Last week we were at the beach in Rockanje (The Netherlands) and we started walking from the parking place called 'Tweede Slag'. In the evening the beach is almost empty so it is a nice place for a walk in the wind, we enjoyed the fresh air, the views, the birds and had a great time.
Of course I made some reference pictures, this time I wanted to paint our dunes - a seascape would be too easy, we had a blue sea and a blue sky with some clouds. The dark bushes, the grasses and the wind-blown shapes of the dunes inspired me.
Because it was getting late and the sun was behind me when I made the picture the plants on top of the dunes were dark, almost back lit. The clouds were getting dark as well. The slope has many shells or remains of shells as the birds nesting there feed on them. There is not really a path, that area is a reserve for the birds. Of course there are grasses growing on the slopes, on the tops there are small bushes.
In my watercolour painting I wanted to depict the height of the sand dunes at that point so I chose a high horizon and a 'portrait' format for my painting. Showing the contrasts between the dark vegetation and the light sand was one of my goals, and I am really happy with the result.
The information about the materials I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog. If you are interested in my work, please contact me.
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