Beach Play

The scene did not ask to be painted more than once. It insisted on it. Three boys on a beach, one allowing himself to be buried by the others, the way children have always done this on beaches everywhere. I watched and recognised something immediately. I grew up with two sisters. I know that game.

Beach Play started with many paintings from that one scene. Eventually the selection was narrowed to seven. There is a discipline in that restriction: not every version was equally necessary, and the act of choosing which ones to keep is part of the work.