17 cm (w) x 12.5 cm (h), pastels on acid-free coloured-ground ‘Canson’ paper.
Date produced: While living at Christies Beach (1986 - 1987)

Produced directly from observation, on-site, from the Esplanade that runs along the foreshore of Christies Beach. I lived in a flat on the Esplanade, and had a fantastic view of the sky and sea to the west, and saw some amazing views while I lived there. I enjoyed many sunsets while I lived on the Esplanade at Christies Beach. Every sunset was different. My flat, or rather, the area just outside my flat, was ideal for doing many small studies of the western skies, like this one.

I like using pastels, because they allow me to work quickly and directly from the scene in front of me. Applied pastel colours are already dry, and so do not change ‘as they dry’, like applied colours do when using acrylic paints and even oil paints. I can also experiment with how I might be able to express the light and tones of real scenes that have dynamic levels of light, etc., by using the gamut of colours that are available when using pastels on paper. I don’t need to worry about mixing all of the colours I use from just a few primary ones, as I do when I paint with oil paints. I try to use a wide range of pre-mixed colours of pastels as much as possible, but still usually find that I need to quickly combine two or more of these colours to get the actual colour I want.