Seascapes – Marion Boddy-Evans

28 September 20268 October 2026

Painting Step by Step: Deliberate “Happy Accidents”

A “happy accident” in a painting is something unplanned or unintended that gives a result we like or that is interesting to work with. But I don’t have to simply wait for one to happen: I can deliberately create the conditions in which happy accidents occur, increase the odds of something intriquing happening though never having control of the outcome.

Acrylic ink is one of my favourite mediums for doing this. To do a drawing and then spray it with water. The result depends on how much ink is on the surface, how much has dried, how much water is sprayed and how close to the ink I spray it. Bonus: it freaks people out who’ve not seen it done before because it gets messy.

Here’s a photo of my final painting, before I get into the layers in it. As you can see, even though a process may be chaotic and messy, the final result need not be overtly so. The reason for doing it is that it benefits me in the making of the painting, it’s exciting and challenging in a way that colouring in a line drawing can never be.

A Piece of Portsoy Harbour.
Mixed media on A2 watercolour paper. Sold.

My first step was to do a drawing in the ink.

I could have let it dry and then add colour, but I want something that’s wilder, so sprayed it with water. (Click on a video to see it full size.)

(Click on a video to see it full size.)

The result:

I placed paper towel over the result to lift off a bit of the excess inky water.

Then I scrunched up the inky paper and stamped across the surface.

The result:

What a delightful chaotic mess to work into. It’s hard to be patient waiting for it to dry, but any wet medium added will mix in and ruin the effect, whilst coloured pencil can tear the wet surface, so I usually work on something else.

I don’t stress if my drawing has dissolved as I can always refind and redraw it. Dealing with what has happened is part of the process. I enjoy responding to what’s there and nudging it in a direction.

Next I got out my watercolours and added a layer of “harbour wall colours”.

Once this had dried, I used opaque acrylic paint to draw in the rusty ring and chains. I also added some opaque colour to some of the harbour wall stones.

Next I added a layer of coloured pencil. It’s subtle in many places, you only notice it up close.

Next layer was oil pastel, both lights and darks. The watercolour paper I’m using has a slight texture to it, which breaks up the pastel line.

I went back and forth with coloured pencil and oil pastel until I got to this point.

After pondering it for a while, I decided the darks weren’t strong enough. Time for something dramatic rather than faffing about. So I poured ink over the whole thing and sprayed this with some water.

(Click on a video to see it full size.)

Relax, remember there’s a lot of oil pastel on the surface and the ink won’t stick to that.

I left it vertical, to drip-dry overnight.

The next morning I added some light orange oil pastel to the rings, and declared the painting finished.

A Piece of Portsoy Harbour.
Mixed media on A2 watercolour paper.

7 April 20266 April 2026

Painting on Paper: The Turbulent Sea from Storm Dave

The named storm that came over Portsoy at the weekend didn’t bring snow as in other parts of Scotland, but Storm Dave did create a rather turbulent sea. This painting was inspired by wave watching when I went for a walk on Sunday morning.

Started with a pencil sketch, then using coloured pencil, watercolour, acrylic paint, and water-soluble crayon.

I painted it in my new studio/gallery space on Seafield Street, Portsoy (open Saturdays and by appointment), and have put it up in the window.

(Note: My phone camera has insisted on brightening the blues somewhat, even on “pro” setting. It’s more cool Prussian blue in real life, more like the last photo.)

6 February 20255 February 2025

Just Add Water (to the water-soluble crayon)

On a day where the beach forecast was for big waves, I took my coffee, an A2 sheet of paper and my tin of water-soluble crayons (Neocolor II) to the picnic bench at pebble beach. The waves were rumbling the pebbles back and forth, and I sat watching for a while.

The cold made it tempting to not draw, but I was feeling emotional about the in-house art critic, and know that art-making helps. So I opened the tin, fondled the colours, and found the ever-useful Payne’s Grey.

I was trying to get a sense of the motion of the waves coming in, tumbling and stretching on the pebbles. The clouds cleared a bit, adding blue to the sky and sea, so I added Light Blue and Malachite Green (I wrote the colour names in the bottom left corner).

I stopped drawing because I was getting too cold. Initially I felt indifferent to the result, but after seeing it for a bit it grew on me because of the energy. I felt the different parts of the waves weren’t distinct enough, and wondered if running a wet brush across would resolve this.

It risked ruining it completely, but after a week of staring at it I decided it needed doing.

I’m glad I did.

21 May 202421 May 2024

My Gouache Learning Curve: Four Paintings at the Beach

The last two days I’ve been back at the little bay with the pebble beach and yellow, gorse-covered headland. But, unlike the time before, I had my new-to-me box of gouache* paints with me and a determination to finally try this medium for myself.

It’s the student-quality Caran D’Ache set I watched Michael Chelsea-Johnson use to good effect when he was on the Isle of Skye in 2019 (scroll to the bottom of this page on his website to see his gouache sketches). It’s got 15 colors, in a cheerful red tin, and may well let me motivate myself with “What would Michael do?” thoughts.

Here are my four paintings, in the order I did them.

1. Gouache and water-soluble wax crayons on A2 watercolour paper. Trying to get a feel for the colours and how they mix and work.

2. Gouache and water-soluble wax crayons on A2 watercolour paper. Going bigger, but finding I was using too much water and losing the opacity. Stopped before it was resolved.

3. Gouache, acrylic ink, and water-soluble wax crayons on A2 watercolour paper. Started with a Payne’s grey acrylic ink drawing as it’s something I enjoy doing, but then found I fought against losing it under opaque colour. I didn’t think to draw again with the ink rather than worry about hiding it.

4. Gouache, acrylic ink, and water-soluble wax crayons on A2 watercolour paper. Also started with Payne’s grey acrylic ink, but spread it with a brush before moving to the gouache. Didn’t get obsessed with covering all the white of the paper nor worrying about using too much water. Worked the sky wet-into-wet. The in-house art critic says it looks like someone standing fishing on the rocks, not an accidental blob.

Overall I had a lot of fun, and can see potential, especially for adding opaques to a mixed media painting as a contrast to more transparent colours. (Joan Eardley is the inspiration for this, though she used oils.) I next want to explore what gouache gives me working it more watery (as semi-opaque) compared to watercolour (will it look “chalky?), and using watercolour over and alongside.

Top left: the initial ink layer beneath the colour, drawn with the bottle’s pipette, then (top right) spread with a damp brush.

*Gouache is essentially watercolour that’s opaque rather than transparent. If you’ve used the white in a watercolour set, then you’ve used gouache. (Acrylic gouache isn’t gouache as it’s not water-soluble when dry; it’s acrylic paint formulated to be opaque and dry to a matte finish.) I’ve heard it described as most like painting with oils because of the opacity.

For comparisons of gouache brands, have a look at the reviews by Sarah Burns. For the last year or so I’ve had the opportunity to paint alongside Sarah as part of the Moray Firth Sketchers group. Sarah’s colour-rich pleinair paintings are another reason I decided it’s time to try gouache.

12 May 202412 May 2024

Plein-Air Painting: Seaside Yellows

It being perfect weather for painting on location, I headed to my favourite seaside picnic table taking three infrequently used things: sunscreen, my sunhat, and the box of water-soluble crayons I’d rediscovered. Once again it was the bit of rocky shore with the angled slabs of yellow-tinged rock echoing the yellow gorse that grabbed my attention. Would today be the day I felt like I finally did it justice? Turned out it was.

The bit of the landscape I was focused on.

Rediscovered water-soluble wax crayons provided a change from my usual mediums.

Size: A2. Acrylic ink and water-soluble wax crayons on 350gsm NOT watercolour paper.

I couldn’t help but notice neither her partner nor their dogs joined this swimmer enjoying the “refreshing” North Sea.

17 January 2024

Stormy Sea: My Biggest-Ever Print

This piece started when I found I had a piece of perspex that was just a little long for the bed of my printing press. Enter the in-house art critic, the Dremel and a tiny circular saw attachment, and it now fits, giving me the possibility of doing prints that are almost A1 in size.

The ink I’m using is an oil-based printing ink that can be cleaned up with water rather than solvent (Caligo Safe Wash). The colour is Prussian blue mixed into my “leftovers grey” (leftover ink I keep in a little glass jar) to make it a bit darker. I put some directly onto the sheet using a palette knife, then use a roller to spread it out, leaving an edge that would become a white border to the print.

To create the image, I worked into the ink using various things to remove parts and create marks, including paper towel, a coarse-haired brush, and scrim (a stiff, open weave fabric). I tried not to leave any area of ink untouched, having learnt that these print as very solid, flat colour, which I didn’t think would enhance the sense of sea. I was visualising the tempestuous sea I’d watched last month as I did this.

When I was happy with how it looked and found myself fiddling with little bits, I put it onto the press, placed a sheet of dampened paper over it (the moisture in the paper encourages the ink to transfer), put in the printing blankets, and ran it through the press. I got so caught up in in all that I forgot to take any photos until after I’d made the ghost print (a second print done to use up any leftover ink). The paper was a little too damp in places and created a watercolour-type effect where the ink has spread; another variable I need to remember.

Ghost print using a sheet torn into three long pieces, which I’m envsaging making into concertina sketchbooks. Doing a ghost print also makes cleaning the sheet of perspex easier as there’s minimal ink left on it.

This is the print as it came off the press, with my hand for scale. It’s hanging up to dry using clips with magnets, out of reach of the studio cats.

There were two areas where the ink had spread because the paper was too wet that I felt dominated the image. The most obvious is on the horizon above my hand. I left the ink to dry before trying to resolve this. I first tried scratching into the paper to see if I could reveal some white, but the ink had soak into the paper and it was blue beneath the surface too. So I took out some white acrylic ink with the hope it wouldn’t be too different a white to the paper, and added some of this.

Here are a couple of close-up details, to give a sense of the variations in mark making. When I look at this, I’m trying to remember what gave me which mark.

This is the final piece, the biggest print I’ve every made. I like the dark blue, which I think conveys the sense of a stormy sea, and the sense of movement.

“Stormy Sea”, approximately 60x50cm (32×20″). Available from my studio.

Whether you’d frame it with the edge showing or not would be a matter of personal preference; I can’t decide which I prefer.

10 June 20236 August 2023

Following a ‘What If I…?’ Impulse When Painting

Often when I am painting I follow an impulse to do something and then respond to what happens. I don’t have the route for creating the painting planned out before I start, but I do know what sorts of things the materials I’m using will give me so there are some parameters, it’s not a total “anything might happen”.

I don’t try to predict what kind of “what if I…?” impulse it might be, though the materials I’m using or have close to hand do influence it. Sometimes it’s a big shift (eg generously spraying water onto wet ink), sometimes small (eg adding a little bit of purple oil pastel to make a shadow area more colourful). Some paintings it never happens, and the result isn’t better or worse for it.

The video below shows such a moment. I had two small wood panels and intended to paint pebbles on both. Instead of painting on both simultaneously as I sometimes do, I ended up with one panel still blank and the other covered in paint (acrylic ink). Seeing how much was still wet, I had an impulse to place the blank board in top of the wet paint to transfer some if the ink.

It’s something I have done before, so I’m doing it with the knowledge of previous results, which range from minimal transfer (the paint was drier than I thought) to a smudged mess (very wet paint on paper that spread and mixed because I pressed down too hard). The worst that could happen was that I’d have a chaotic colourful mess, but that could easily be washed off or overpainted. The best would be an interesting starting point for a second pebble painting.

The photo below is what I ended up with. You can see how the colours make them a pair of paintings that sit together, and how the shapes in the colours on the left suggest pebbles.

I let the left-hand panel to dry a bit whilst I used a rigger brush to define some stronger pebbles in the right-hand one.

The light reflecting in the paint shows you how wet the paint is. It’s crucial to have the panel flat at this stage to avoid the paint inadvertently running and dripping.

As the ink starts to dry, the brush strokes of the rigger brush start to hold their edges rather than melt and blend

The dried painting is a mixture of wet-into-wet colour mixing and visible brushmarks. I enjoy this mixture and how the closer you look the more you see.

This is where the two paintings ended up:

The question now is, “Which way up do I hang them?”

28 May 202328 May 2023

Limited Colour Palette Watercolour at Bow Fiddle Rock

Bow Fiddle Rock is simultaneously inspiring and intimidating because it’s such a recognisable landmark. The last time I painted there was nearly a year ago, in August 2022 (see photo below), and before that June 2019 (see this blog post).

From August 2022. Acrylic on three sheets of A3 watercolour paper taped together, and primed with gesso in adance to give a bit of surface texture

This time I was in the company of members of the Moray Firth Sketchers, and as always it was interesting to see their results (photos on the Facebook group here) and the viewpoints chosen.

The tide was starting to come in, and I found I was enjoying the movement of the water along the channel in the big rocks in the foreground, perhaps even more than the dramatic shapes of Bow Fiddle Rock. So I picked a spot on the pebbles before they drop down steeply to the water’s edge that gave me a good view of this.

If you’re familiar with the branding of UK supermarkets, you’ll know where that orange bag my paint supplies are in came from. That little bit of green foam makes a huge different to comfort levels sitting on the rocks.

I had brought my zip-up case of favourite drawing pencils/pens, plus some of my liquid watercolour bottles having selected only a few colours at home with the steep walk back up the hill from the beach in mind. I knew that Lunar Black, Hematite Geniune, and Soladite Genuine Blue would give me the fundamental colours I needed for the sea and rocks. A bottle of white acrylic would give me the sea foam.

For some reason I’d also thrown in a roll of masking tape, and I was glad I did because sitting on location I had the urge to paint larger and could tape two A3 sheets together. The first painting I started with hematite watercolour, but felt I was getting a little lost as to where things were so I swapped to pencil to feel my way around the forground, using different marks for the rocks and pebbles.

Next I added some blue for the water, to differentiate the water/rocks/sky areas.

Then I went back to the rocks with hematite and Lunar black, aiming to add a sense of shadow and separate the foreground rocks from the fiddle.

I stopped here to let the watercolour dry, then decided I was pleased with the energy to the painting and the risk of losing this was too great if I continued. So I put it aside and taped together two more sheets. This time I started with pencil.

I added blue to the sea, using the silicone ‘paint brush’ to try and get a sense of the white wave edges of the incoming tide. Applying the colours in a different order to my first painting prevents the sense of duplicating myself. I took the blue right up to the pencil lines depicting the edges of the rocks with the thought that I would wait for this to dry and then paint the rocks. (In my first painting, I’d tried not to get the blue too close to the rock colours in case parts were still wet and would thus run into the sea.)

I used predominantly Lunar Black on the left of the fiddle rocks because it was now in the shade. I should have added more colour to the arm or ‘elephant trunk’ in the top right corner, and might still do this. In the foreground, I added some white acrylic to the incoming water.

And finally a little splattered colour for some pebbles.

Which is your favourite? Left or right? Post in the comments section below to let me know. I’m hard pressed to choose myself.

Look Ma, I’m being sensible and wearing my wide-brimmed sunhat!

25 February 2023

Negative Space (and Bubble Wrap Printing) as a Starting Point for a Painting

After I found a sheet on which I’d at some point* printed with bubble wrap pressed into paint, I wondered if I could use this to create a sea shore painting by starting with the negative space around the rocks. The video below shows what evolved.

(If you don’t see this video, click here. There is not any sound on the video.)

Below are a couple of close-up photos of the painting, as well as one of the painting at the point at which I stopped.

Mixed media: acrylic paint, coloured pencil, and oil pastel on 350gsm watercolour paper

Being on paper, the white ink that was the last layer I applied did sink on a bit as it dried. That’s something I allow for and if need can always add more white paint or oil pastel to it. The unpredictability of exactly how it’ll dry is part of the fun of the technique, coming into my studio the next day to see what it looks like when totally dry. I particularly like the way it’s sunk in around the texture of the paper towards the top.

*I think it dates back to meeting of my art group on Skye!

9 June 2022

Seascape Painting: Tempestuously

This painting came from walking along the sea wall and beach at Gardenstown, in northeastern Scotland, watching the tide coming in over the rocks. The title of the painting, “Tempestuously”, came from an early morning discussion I had with artist Liza Hawthorne, and it’s up to you to decide whether it applies to the weather, sea, or the artist.

This sequence of photos takes you from the beginning of the painting, where I started adding blues over the underpainting of magenta, orange, and yellow, to the finished painting.

The finished painting, plus a couple of detail photos