Painting the Sunny Beach at Plage de La Ponche in St Tropez

This scene is from the beautiful St Tropez in the south of France. It is a small beach called Plage de La Ponche. What I love about this view is how the old buildings come right down to the sand and the water. It is a very historic part of the town. The weather was perfect and the sun was very strong which is great for watercolor painting.

When I paint a scene like this my main focus is on the light and the shadows. The sun creates very strong shapes on the walls of the buildings. To capture that warm glow of the sun on the architecture I used a mix of light red and cadmium red. I also used some burnt sienna and yellow ochre to get the feeling of the old stone. These warm colours look great against the cool blues of the sky and sea. For the water I used cerulean blue and a little viridian green to get that turquoise look.

I also wanted to add some life to the beach. I painted a few figures walking along the shore. I did not paint them in too much detail. I just used simple shapes to suggest people. This helps to show the scale of the tall buildings behind them. For the darkest shadows under the buildings and on the figures I used neutral tint and ultramarine blue. This strong contrast makes the light look even brighter. I also left the white paper plain for the white foam of the waves.