
This is how the mountain, Kunanyi, looks from Kingston Beach which is about 15 minutes drive from my place. I liked all the sparkles on the water and the blue mountain rising behind the town. This is not a good photo of the painting. The camera made the sky too bright and the clouds too dark. Also, the colour doesn't show up well and subtle gradations in value are lost. But you get the idea. I tried to adjust it in Affinity Photo but probably made it worse. I'll take a better photo outside in sunshine tomorrow.
Thanks for taking a look. All comments/critiques/suggestions greatly appreciated.

PS It looks better bigger so right click and open in new tab.
Comments
I thought this was the photo at first when I looked at it. The sparkle in that water is so real.
Lovely work Rob,
I like how you have handled the light and it shimmering on the water and the clouds are great.
Also.. houses, cars? What have you done with tassieguy??
I wanted to challenge myself with something I don't usually paint. I thought the buildings and cars would be hard but they weren't too bad. I just forget they were houses and cars and concentrated on putting strokes of the correct shape, value and colour in the right place and the cars and buildings sort of just happened on their own. The next one will be pure nature - no buildings or cars. Not even a track. It's the wilderness at the bottom of my garden.
excellent!!
this is a departure from your usual style...not just subject but approach, I love both styles but I suppose they call this more painterly?
You are an excellent craftsman and combine such with fine sensibility in this
And I'm so glad that you recognize the scene and think the painting works. It was a somewhat new approach for me. I'm using softer brushes and more fluid paint over semi-dry darker layers so that I can lay in strokes without them mixing on the canvas very much. That's how I got the sparkle on the water. I'll continue doing it this way in the next one.
Thanks very much for your kind words, Judith.
I know it looks like the view in the painting is from a boat off the beach, but I took the photo from the breakwater next to the launching ramp at the Yacht club. It's a lovely spot. I also did a series on the rocks down there for a show I had two years ago. I keep going back there because it's so photogenic. But you have some gorgeous scenery in NZ, too. I didn't know about the classical concert at Kettering. If I had I probably would have gone as I love classical music. For such a small place there's a very vibrant arts and music scene here.