Oil on Canvas, image size: 75x50cm
Warm late-afternoon harbour light was where this started, and the palette followed from that. This scene made me want to test how far I could push warmth without losing the subtlety that makes it interesting. It’s probably the most openly optimistic thing I’ve painted.
The warm passages concentrate at the horizon and pick up on specific surfaces, while the surrounding areas hold cooler, so the warmth has somewhere to land.
The title is carrying two things at once: the literal subject, a harbour scene in the process of renewal, and something more personal about what it feels like to be at the water at that hour. I’ve stopped worrying about whether that’s too much to ask a painting to hold. It mostly can.
Mark Naismith-Beeley, 2026.