“The Beach”
Friday 14th August 2026
For the second year running the Paint & Sip evening at Deepcut Community Centre was very well attended by an enthusiastic group of FCSA artists. Sue Whitehead, the Chairman, led the beach themed evening by demonstrating how she had painted the reference beach painting. On what was probably the hottest night of the year everyone quickly forgot about the heat as they got lost in their artwork.
Sue began by painting the sky. She said that the horizon did not need to go directly across the middle of the page. She had used Cerulean Blue and Ultra Marine Blue. The sea needs to be a deeper blue than the sky. Sue had also used Turquoise in the lower section of the sea.
Next it was time to add the clouds. Just above the horizon there were light whips of cloud which Sue blended and softened. She used a small, stiff brush to give more form to the larger clouds in the sky.
For the waves coming into the shore Sue used a palette knife loaded with white paint. She then took some Raw Sienna and White to begin to paint the beach. Time to take a break and enjoy a sip of something fresh and cooling. There was even Pimm’s with ice on offer.
Sue used Sap Green to start to paint the grass. She used a fan brush at times to create the effect of tall grasses. She added Hooker’s Green to give more depth to the foreground and then added some individual tall stalks of grass using a Rigger paint brush.
An element Sue really enjoys is adding some flashes of colour by flicking the paint. She uses a stiff paint brush loaded with paint and pulls the bristles back to send the paint in a random way onto the canvas. The paint needs to be just the right consistency, slightly wet, to work well. She flicked some orange, yellow and even a little white on the grasses in the foreground of the painting.
Finally, in the foreground the flowers were added by loading a paint brush with Alizarin Crimson and White and using it to sculpted the shape of the petals.
A huge thank you to Sue Whitehead for organising and leading such a fun and inspiring evening. It was a great way to meet up and enjoy working creatively together.
