Before I take on a larger work I usually complete several studies. Often I’m experimenting with different techniques, and one of the studies I’ll choose to be a reference for a larger work.

This is an oil painting on stretched canvas, it was completed sometime in around 2017.

I believe I did two studies on this occasion, and this is the one that I decided to use as my main reference in a larger work.

The scene is of Cottesloe beach in Western Australia, but actually, because there’s no landmark it could be any beach anywhere.

I was really drawn to the compositional elements of the reference photos that I took that evening at the beach.

The ark of the foam wash seems to mirror the ark of the clouds – in a sense of yin yang, and divided by the Horizon line through the centre of the canvas.

There are a positive element and a negative element in yin yang. There’s also this interesting idea of fire and water. Fire above the central line in the sunset and water below as it’s the opposite counterpart in the foreground.

So in a way its a pristine beach, with no people or footsteps, inside a yin yang symbol, or together within with symbols of balance.

For me, that means as we go about our life in the world we need to be careful of our footprints.