When a Painting Finds Its People in Mawgan Porth

Sometimes one of the loveliest parts of being an artist has very little to do with the actual act of painting.

This lovely couple found me after searching Google for an artist in Cornwall and came down to see me painting on the beach at Mawgan Porth.

They settled nearby and watched as the painting gradually developed. As I worked, we started chatting… about art, life, the universe and everything in between.

There is something rather special about painting outside. When I am working directly from the landscape, people can see the artwork growing from the first marks through to the finished piece. They are not simply looking at a painting hanging on a wall. They are watching the whole process unfold in front of them.

After sitting with me for quite some time, this couple announced that they had fallen in love with the painting and would like to buy it and take it home.

For some reason, the whole moment became unexpectedly emotional.

Perhaps it was the conversation. Perhaps it was the shared experience of sitting beside the sea on a beautiful day in Cornwall. Or perhaps there is simply something powerful about seeing an artwork created from a place you love and knowing that you can take a little piece of that place home with you.

Painting Mawgan Porth as I See It

Much of my artwork is created en plein air, directly in front of the landscape rather than from a photograph later in the studio.

When I paint Mawgan Porth, I am responding to what is actually happening around me… the changing colour of the sea, the reflected light, the rocks beneath the water, the movement of the tide and the atmosphere of the day.

That means every original painting carries something of that particular moment.

It is also why no two paintings are ever quite the same. Even when I return to the same view, the light, weather, tide and colours have changed.

More Than Simply Buying a Painting

One of the things I love most about working as an artist in Mawgan Porth, Cornwall, is meeting the people who stop to watch.

Sometimes they ask questions about the painting. Sometimes they tell me about their own experiences of art. Sometimes they have visited Mawgan Porth for decades and share stories about why the beach matters so much to them.

And occasionally, as happened on this particular day, somebody watches a painting being created and realises that it belongs with them.

There is something wonderfully different about knowing the story behind an original artwork. This couple will not only have a painting of Mawgan Porth on their wall. They will remember the day they watched it being painted, the conversations we shared and the place where it began.

A Beautiful Place to Call My Studio

I regularly paint and teach art at Mawgan Porth and around Cornwall through Art At The Beach and Visual Awareness.

I still find it extraordinary that my working day can involve standing beside the Atlantic with an easel in front of me, surrounded by one of the most beautiful landscapes in Cornwall.

Then occasionally a day like this happens… a painting is created, strangers become friends for a little while, and the artwork leaves the beach with the people who connected with it.

For me, that is one of the great privileges of being an artist.

This original Mawgan Porth painting was created on the beach, watched as it developed, loved there and carried away to its new home.

And I rather like that.

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