Afternoon breaker - plein air seascape in oil

Green Islands, Albany. Photo by Andy Dolphin.

With the sun still shining, I threw my French easel, back pack, camera and bottle of cordial in the car and headed back to the Albany coast.

My back pack folds out to a stool (I stand when I paint though) and contains almost everything I need for plein air painting. It's a semi-organised mess but it carries rags, plastic bags, primed painting boards, colour charts, thinner, sketch book, pencils, hand wipes and sometimes a beanie to keep my head warm as evening falls. It has two side pockets that hold insect repellent, sunscreen and my bottle of drinking water - or cordial. It's handy having the drinking water in its own pocket so I don't reach into the back pack and end up grabbing and drinking thinner by mistake.

My SLR camera is too big and precious to go in the back pack so has its own shoulder bag. My paints and brushes are in the French easel.

Here's the result for this trip. First, the "proof I was there" location shot...

And the painting...

 (Afternoon breaker. Plein air sketch. 30x20cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

The photo at the top of the blog shows how things were looking as I was packing up. Spectacular, as always.