Sunset - with Atmosphere!

Sometimes my sketches take some time to be turned into finished paintings. This one took 13 years! I've revisited this sketch often, but never felt able to commit to a painting as I never worked out how to give it enough atmosphere to make it special. Then, recently, I was thinking of painting a sunset and the sketch came to mind! The original sketch included the whole of the coastline, out of the picture to the right, but I didn't want too much land in the image, preferring to concentrate on the sky and, to a lesser extent, the sea colours. I've therefore concentrated on just the headland, and I moved the closest spit of rock from its real position so that it would enter this picture. I set out to create a scene dripping in atmosphere, and I'm happy with the results! For me, this image has an almost hypnotic quality - it's still on my board as I write as I am reluctant to remove it. These scenes are difficult to photograph and, after many efforts, this is the best photo I can achieve. But it doesn't do the painting justice: in the flesh, the whole paining glows and almost creates an aura around the distant headland. This one will be difficult to part with!