A recent family holiday to North Wales has resulted in plenty of inspiration for paintings! The first day was overcast but warm, and I nearly drained my phone battery taking so many photos of the amazing beach at Harlech, where the mountains of Snowdonia peak over the top of the dunes and are reflected in the wet sand and shallow lagoons left by the retreating tide. I attempted a painting (10"x7") but messed up the perspective of the dunes on the left, and seriously overworked the sea (possibly not too obvious to the onlooker though!). The scale was difficult to get right - it looks more like a distant view of crashing waves, rather than the tiny ripples I'm standing ankle deep in!

So this weekend I tried a little 7"x5" study of the same scene, just to try getting the sea looking better (not spending much effort on the mountains or dunes). I was happy with the beach and shoreline on this one, but the sea ended up too dark and unconvincing again.

So I had another go, using a slightly different reference photo for the wavelets. I don't like the colours of the beach so much in this one, but I think the dunes look better more muted, and I think the sea looks better.

I think I learnt my lesson with this - start with some smaller studies, rather than rush straight into a 'proper painting', which is likely to end up over-worked and fussy by trying to correct problems. The question is, do I have another go at a larger version of this scene, trying to pick my favourite elements of the previous three versions, or just move on to something else? Interested to know whether other people often make multiple attempts at the same scene, practicing it in the same way you'd play a piece of piano music over and over to get it right, or do you just move on?

(Hope it's OK to post so many pictures on one page - I did resize them so they're not too massive!)