This piece was painted just before heavy rain broke over Crackington, beneath a deep indigo sky that seemed to be gathering weight by the minute. Shortly after I finished, the clouds opened into heavy rain and a dramatic lightning display.

I made the painting from rocks above a dark, choppy and dangerous incoming tide. The sea was turbulent and foreboding, and more than once it came close enough that I had to retreat quickly from the waves. There is a tension in the work between the beauty of that heavy sky and the physical threat of the water below. It holds the moment just before the weather fully breaks, when everything feels charged, compressed and waiting to release.