5″X7″ Watercolour Pencil on paper

Today I am breaking one of my own cardinal rules, never to paint from a photograph I haven’t taken myself. I couldn’t resist the challenge presented by Karin Jurick on her new blog, Different Strokes from Different Folks. The idea is that she will post a photograph every week and challenge other artists to make their own rendition of it. Mine is pretty straightforward, some have come up with quite imaginative renderings, check them out. I actually found it quite hard to paint a believable picture of somewhere I have never been. Usually I use a combination of photo reference and memory and often sketches too. Here I had no idea of the atmosphere of the place, couldn’t feel the wind or the sun beating down, couldn’t smell the sea.