I recently took some holiday time to go to the Isle of Wight with my girlfriend and of course I took my painting gear along.
After the ferry dropped us off from Portsmouth we drove directly to the iconic set of sea stacks on the westernmost point of the island called The Needles.

While the weather was mostly overcast there were small windows during the painting process when the sun came peaking out for a cameo. I tried to capture these fleeting moments in the painting as the light left some warm details on some of the rock formations.

This isn’t the first time I’ve painted The Needles, incidentally. In one of my early classes with Andrew Schofield he taught me several techniques with which to approach such a seascape. I’ve probably ignored or forgotten half of them in this painting. I’m very pleased to now paint The Needles from life for a challenging yet very enjoyable spot of plein air painting.

I used Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd paints for this study in the following colours:
Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Light
Cadmium Red Medium
Magenta
Cerulean Blue Hue
French Ultramarine
Burnt Sienna

No extra medium used.