Beachcombers

Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

On the sands of Lindisfarne Island I watched this party of sanderlings through a telescope, from some distance. As they busied themselves feeding, scurrying along the water’s edge, these diminutive waders seemed dwarfed by the foaming waves of the advancing tide.

In order to paint this picture I spent a long time sitting, crouching and kneeling at the waterline, and occasionally wading in to the surf to observe and understand the constantly changing structure of breaking waves and to see how they evolve on their journey to the beach.

The birds were observed in late August and are in various stages of moult from immature plumage to first winter.