Bike on the Beach

The bike itself is beautifully and effortlessly stated, but it’s very much a picture about paint. There’s a nice ‘juiciness’ to it. And I love the way Dad has painted the sky round the tall pipe-line marker with the strokes of the brush following its shape. Likewise blue sea has been painted between some of the breakwater posts, and the distant beach round the handlebars and saddle of the bike. Foreground and background become one. The sketch for this picture is dated the year before the painting.