I’m working on a new watercolour painting to be called The Reefs of Arrecife. When choosing what to paint – the WOW factor is important for me. We’re just back from Lanzarote. It is an island of course, and the sea is a key feature. It’s a lovely spot. We visited Arrecife, and took a walk along the promenade. Its an interesting port town, and while most of the other people there, were checking out the ancient canons, or trying to get into the museum, I went around the back of the castle to view the sea. Wow, what colours there were! Turquoise, deep blues and greens, sandy beach, black volcanic rocks, and the white foam breaking on the reefs a couple of hundred yards offshore. I’ll paint this I thought, so I took about twenty snaps on my phone, and when we came home I started into it. Im not trying to copy the photos but trying to capture that ‘wow’ moment, while it’s still fresh in my mind.
This was our first winter sun holiday, and I didn’t really intend to look for subjects to paint. I just wanted to chill out. However, I nearly always return from trips, even day trips, with ideas of what to paint. I think it’s the novelty factor of being somewhere else, of seeing something for the first time, and maybe also being in the right frame of mind.
