Now this painting was a real experience. I turned up on this section of Brighton Beach, and the winds felt like they were gale force. The waves were sometimes about 10ft high, moving quickly in the direction of the wind, and smashing against the rocks and the shore.

I got as close as I felt was pushing my luck, but what I thought I could get away with. I opened my tripod and buried the easel legs a few inches into the bed of stones, and quickly attacked my bag to the center as an additional weight, adding more stones inside to keep it stable.
After setting up my easel, I had second thoughts, my mixing trays were rattling in the wind and the whole easel was shaking, I thought it might fly off and hit me in the face! But I kept the easel still by resting my left arm as I painted, and trusted it would hold in place for enough time to get a quick study done.

An art teacher came over to me and commented, she said she is always trying to get her students to get outside and sketch. She left and I quickly returned, I knew I only had a small amount of time to record something meaningful.

I then noticed to my right, a man who was standing there with goggles on, a swimming hat and speedos, as a 10ft wave smashed the shore a few feet away from him. He actually went in for a swim, and then lost his hat seconds later.

If he could swim, I could definitely paint.

The strength of the wind meant I could not do any detail strokes, and with this small 5” X 7” panel, it meant that the entire study had to be an impressionistic one!

It got to a point where I could no longer feel my fingers or hand, almost all sensation was gone, and I was essentally mixing paint and making strokes with the movements of my shoulder.

I managed to get this down, safely packed away (which took me ages), and kept all of materials. I then went for shelter, and the public toilet hand drying machine never felt better as it brought life back to my hands.

What an experience!

This is my orignial 5” X 7” plein air oil painting of the strong waves hitting the path leading into the sea on Brighton Beach.