Oil. Alistair Butt © 2013 - #AB 021333
Having had a full day along the Somerset coast, it was now just waiting for the sunset. I enjoy watching the sun setting and always hoping it'll be one of those really special ones. This day there was a real mix of clouds, some bits showing falling rain (on the Welsh side of the Briston channel) while other helped create the rays of sunlight.
Although the beach is wet, the tide had been out and was now returning. It's the distant highlighted water and with the beach so flat it wouldn't be long before it reached this point. The tidal range for the Bristol channel is up to 9 metres which is a lot of water.
The two islands (shown on the horizion) are Steep Holm (almost centre) and Flat Holm (right).
Apart from the usual drawing up and base colour painting this painting was done in two stages and both wet into wet. One for the sky and the other the beach area. Both were worked light over dark, where possible, using soft brushes to aid the soft feel to both the clouds and wet beach.