'Beyond The Shore' — Why This Abstract Seascape Original Art Is One of My Most Personal Paintings

Some paintings arrive from a very specific place — and 'Beyond The Shore' is one of those. This abstract seascape was inspired by Hengistbury Head and Mudeford Spit on the Dorset coast, and the many blustery, gloriously happy walks I did there when the children were just tiny. Those days — big skies, waves doing their wild and wonderful thing, the children running ahead with rosy cheeks — have a particular quality of memory that never quite left me.

In this painting I wasn't trying to paint a photograph of that place. I wanted to paint the feeling of standing there. The wind pushing at me. The sea stretching out to the horizon. That particular combination of exhilaration and deep, restorative calm that only the coast at its most alive can give you. And I used colours that for me are calming - teals, duck egg blue and that lovely sandy yellow. That's what I'm hoping that I captured in this abstract seascape — not what I saw but what I felt.

There's real energy in this canvas oil painting — you can almost feel the spray — and yet underneath all of that there's a profound sense of peace. Because that's the beautiful contradiction the sea always holds, I think - sometimes wild on the surface but also calm in the deep.

'Beyond The Shore' is a one-of-a-kind original canvas oil painting, 50x50cm, painted in oils & varnished. Available unframed or with a float frame in white wood, natural wood or black wood. Once it finds its home, there will never be another exactly like it.

Browse 'Beyond The Shore' and the full collection of original paintings at KateShephardArt.co.uk.