Last day of the month and batting 100 so far. I took the bike and trailer a couple of km around Mangrove Bay to the spot I had abandoned due to a thunderstorm a couple of days earlier. It was late afternoon and the sun was low, saturating the waves with dancing gold. A front offshore crept in and stalled above me with a harsh, almost surgical, line of clouds that threatened rain, but intensified the light show. I worked on a motif of the distant shore, working as quickly as possible in case the front blocked out the light. I noted the tonal change of the water surface under the gold highlights, changing from a cool blue grey at right, becoming ever lighter as the eye went left. The sky glowed warm yet was grey with the front moving in. The far away boats were mere blue notes with a cursory top light flick of a rush. It’s always a bit of a lucky dip painting into the sun. Your eyes get a little dazzled and a degree of instinct has to take over. When I had finished and was able to look at the piece away from the brightness, I was pleased to see that it retained energy and captured a feeling of the scene.