Learning the Sea’s Colours

Painting a quiet morning by the sea means looking beyond the blue captured in a photograph.

A fictional art journal story inspired by everyday moments. Gallery imagery is illustrative.

I took twelve photographs of the sea and came home with twelve versions of the same bright blue.

None looked like the morning I remembered.

It had been windy and slightly cold. There was sand inside my shoes. An older man walked along the water carrying his sandals, stopping now and then to watch the waves before moving on.

When I began painting, I put the photographs away.

I mixed grey into the blue, then a little green. The water became less cheerful and more familiar. I added the man as a small figure near the edge, with barely enough detail to show the sandals in his hand.

For a while, I worried there wasn’t enough happening.

But each time I looked at the canvas, my eye followed him along the shore. That quiet movement was enough to bring the morning back.