Even though the experience of walking on the beach is too multisensory to be contained on a canvas, I try to capture visual impressions of the incoming tide and reflections, with transparent layers of acrylic paint and lacquer.

The quality of the sea’s movement in these pictures is influenced by my interest in movement therapy and the neurology of visual illusions. My pictures often integrate the dynamics of movement and the interactions between different types of motion. In “TIDE”, the incoming tide flows in a different direction from the undertow that pulls at the shells and rocks out to sea.

The use of mixed-media additions to create a heightened sense of realism and motion follows the theory that our brains create a sharp picture of things even though our eyes only see clearly in the fovea (center) of the retina.

Seeing a real object, if it is sensed as part of the painted picture, causes us to ‘see’ the rest of the picture more realistically. Also, the motion of the sea in the picture seems more real as the viewer walks past the three-dimensional rock, moving the relative position of its shadow.