Another small watercolour for Running With Brushes (I will post some larger pictures soon, I promise. I’m just heading for a milestone and then I’ll take a break from these for a while).

In this painting, I wanted to capture the feeling of being high up on a clifftop next to a copse of trees, looking down on a deserted beach. In my first draft of this painting, there were trees on both sides framing the beach below, creating  a window the viewer was looking through. But that composition just didn’t really work – it was too symmetrical (and a little boring). For me this version evokes a sense of warmth with the red and yellow flowers in the foreground meadow and peace contributed by the deserted beach below.

The challenges of painting a small watercolour:

– There’s a tendency to try and cram too much information into a painting – one key message is enough.

– I sometimes have to remind myself that ‘simple is good’ so that I don’t overcomplicate a painting

– Detail isn’t always required. The eye interprets innuendo very well.