Coastal Landscape Paintings

Coastal landscape paintings are fun and exciting. I love the beauty of unspoilt and ever-changing coastlines. The contrast of fluid and ceaselessly moving sea and its relationship with static and immense landforms is fascinating.

Sometimes the sea is a backdrop to the coastline in a painting. Some artists choose to focus on the sea with just a suggestion of land to give it a base, an anchor, for the viewer's eye.

I think it's very important to choose which you're trying to focus on, otherwise your painting could be too complicated and possibly fractured into two parts.

sea and land

Also, and sorry if it's obvious, but the sea is not blue! Spend time at different times of day and year really looking at the sea. At times it seems angry and grey, flat and intense. Other times, it sparkles with deep and glorious shades of teal and aquamarine. If painting coastal landscapes is a new direction for you, then try and focus on small view first. Take time to consider what you want your painting to say, and what the point of interest is. In mixed media painting, the use of collage and different textural pastes, can add to the excitement of the painting.

Why not follow one of my step-by-step painting lessons - you will find the route via the navbar.

Still unsure about coastal landscape paintings? Then have a glance at the gallery page to see the effects you can achieve.

SBI!