“…the sea offers …the chance to beat witness to the immemorial rhythms of the world”
Sax Impey, “The Power of the Sea“, page 129
“Where sea and land meet, begin there.
The ampersand, the join, is a fault
which caused…”
Punctuation Marks by Philip Nanton
Staring out the window as I write this, the sea is a series of horizontal stripes of steely blues and bluey greys, with a dark band on the horizon where it touches the grey-white of the sky. Last night the setting sun dressed it in pinks, purples and oranges. The sea offers the chance to bear witness to colour, and definitely not only blues. The sea offers an excuse reason to have tubes of all the different blue pigments, plus a few yellows, not to forget a magenta for beautiful mixed purples. My favourite ‘recipe’ for mixing “sea greys” was Prussian blue + burnt umber + titanium white, but I’m growing increasingly fond of blue + orange + white.
What I notice about the sea and sky where we live is that relationship between the direction from which the light is coming from and the contrast between the sea and sky. If you look at the horizon furthest away from the light source, the sky may be darker than the sea, but the opposite may be the case the nearer you get to the light source, ie the sea may be darker than the sky. It will also take on different hues in the morning as opposed to the evening, being bluer/greyer in the colder morning and warmer colours in the evening. Natures little presents never cease to amaze me