Finding a subject to paint

Sardinia Cove Sketch

Gathering reference material and thinking about ideas for the next painting is something most artists are doing all the time to a greater or lesser degree. It's the only way to avoid the dreaded staring at a blank canvas and wondering what to paint! Anyone who has tried painting has sat there doing that at one stage or another. It's the artist's equivalent of writer's block.
That's probably why painting outdoors is so popular in warm countries, as there is always something worth painting, just take a stroll around and it doesn't take long to settle on something worthwhile.

So I have been thinking about my next painting now...and I am going to try a painting based on a sketch I made in Sardinia...actually I didn't sketch it at the time I saw it, as I was on a sailing boat trip. It was midday and we were anchored in a small inlet with one or two other yachts nearby. From there I swam to a nearby rock about 30 yards away, climbed out, put on my runners, which I had floated to shore on a small float board, and climbed up a hill through a series of rocks to look down on the boat. I sat high up there about 200ft or more above the cove. The sun was high and all the water shone a sparkling blue like you see in the Carribean. It was a perfectly tranquil day, with the blue haze of distant land on the horizon, and I tried hard to memorise the scene, the warmth and glow of the water, the sky and the rocks and the shapes of everything. The position of the boats and the cove itself. So here is the sketch I made after, and hopefully I can create something special which will bring me back to that moment.

I really love all those Mediterranean places, like Sardinia and Italy and want to paint more...so now that I am starting back into painting after quite a while of absence, I have a subject that I think I will really enjoy.

I hope to progress the painting over the following weeks and post it here as I don't get so much time for painting at present, so check back for to see posts of my progress.