Beach Landscape Paintings

Your idea of beach landscape paintings will be strongly influenced by where you live. As a resident of the UK, my ideas range from stripy deckchairs, happy families, ice cream and colourful beach towels in Brighton to wild, lonely, windswept and isolated beaches in Cornwall. The contrast to the sun-drenched beaches of Rio de Janerio, with sun-tanned volleyball players and sun-worshipping teenagers are obviously worlds apart.

I think the challenges to an artist when considering a beach painting is how to achieve the different and beautiful textures of sand, pebbles, rocks, sea with the addition of any human paraphanallia. Also, what to include and what to leave out? Are you trying to capture the remoteness and peacefulness of a beach at nine in the evening, or the excitement and chaos of a popular spot in the height of the holiday season?