Inspiration

Holywell Bay II is an original oil painting in my wave series. It shows crashing ocean waves in many shades of green from emerald to the palest yellow green hue. The beaches of the South Devon coastline and Cornwall have inspired this painting.

Holywell Bay in Cornwall has a huge beach of golden sand backed by grass tufted dunes. It is a perfect example of the north coast’s wide open bays large enough for everyone to enjoy. Go body boarding in the water, storm watch in winter or stroll across the sands with the dog. In short it is an ideal place to just sit on the beach and read a good book; meanwhile the kids play in the stream or enjoy the waves.

At low tide it is possible to explore the fascinating grotto-like Holywell Cave with its calcium deposits. You can also see the wreck of an old Argentinian coaster just offshore at low tide.

There is ample room amongst the dunes, some of which rise up 60 feet, for a beach picnic and it’s a suitably romantic spot to watch the sun go down.

The National Trust owns and looks after Holywell and is able to care and conserve areas like this, thanks to their members, volunteers and donors. Car park free to National Trust members.

Medium

I like to work in oils because of their versatility. You can layer the paint so that it has a translucency. Also It is so robust a medium I can scrape the paint back or scratch into it too. This is another in my series of wave paintings which I started many years ago.

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