“Happiness Is A Shingle Shore”

This landscape art was inspired by a wonderful day at the seaside. It was the end of a lovely week spent exploring the South Hams coast, Devon, UK.

I was there making outdoor art to use as reference material for studio paintings and prints. A busman's holiday you could say.

I'd never been to Devon before, and had read that Blackpool Sands was a shingle beach, despite being called ‘sands’. My curiosity was peaked, and it went on my list of Devon sights to check‑out.

Blackpool Sands looks out over Start Bay on the road from Dartmouth to Torcross and Slapton Ley. I'd visited all these locations and was overwhelmed with inspiration for paintings and prints by the time I stopped at this bay.

I couldn't remember having been on a beach made entirely of pebbles of all sizes, and was not sure it would be ‘up-to-much’. This was why I'd left it until near the end of my visit. How wrong can someone be!

Happiness really is a shingle shore

Blackpool Sands did not disappoint at all. On a glorious sunny day in April, I discovered the delights of this bay on the Devon coast, just below the beautiful town of Dartmouth.

Hardly anyone else was there, and the day was intensely clear and bright. The Spring sunshine was dazzling and warm, the blue sky was vivid, and the sparkle on the gently lapping sea danced.

After exploring the shore, sketching ideas for beach paintings, I picked a spot and sat to review my notes in my sketchbook.

I paused and gazed out to the ocean. The sound of the sea softly shuffling the shingle, the intensity of the blue, and the perfect arrangement of little clouds in the bay stunned me into a moment of reverie.

This wonderful big, blue planet, in all its sublime beauty, lay before me. A priceless 'good‑to‑be‑alive' moment, as you'll know if you've been ‘there’ too.

Back in my studio, I chose to use a small canvas board for this artwork. I intended to make a bigger painting ultimately, but felt I needed to try the idea out first.

The finished painting above is so strong, with so much merit, that I'm reluctant to try to better it with a bigger painting now. When I can't see how I'd improve on a piece, I've discovered I'm often unhappy with any further work I make. So it stands as is, a small painting filled with a big beautiful world.