Colour description of Tangiers, The Beach

Even from a distance, the aqua colour of the ocean seems to jump out across the room. It is the most attention grabbing. The white and darker blue dabs in the water creates motion and shows a bit of waves. The lines are very smooth and rhythmic but the viewer is able to see that the water is flowing very softly and subtle.

As the waves roll towards the shore, it changes from its aqua green to a more intense white. The sand consists of darker browns and lighter browns, with the darker to show the wet sand while the lighter brown revels the shade of the dry sand. The peachy and white tones seem to be the reflection of the sunlight on tiny pebbles. The dabs of grays, blues and purple shows the shadows of what might be the uneven ground of the beach. His choice of colours of the sand matches the aqua water perfectly. It flows smoothly and does not cause irritation for the eye.

The two subjects on the right consist of fairly neutral tones, other than the bright red hat the man wears on his head. Surprisingly, the bright red is barley noticeable and does not take the viewer's attention away from any other part of the painting. Looking down the figure, it is sporting a fairly neutral blue jacket with bright patches which shows it might be a rain jacket or a windbreaker. At man's feet he wears bright yellow shoes but it also does not take away from the rest of the painting, probably because it is against a background of almost the same shade (the sand).

The flat mountains in the distance consist of a neutral tone like the sand. There are dabs of purples. grays and blues as the shadows and white and pink shades for the brighter areas. Overall, the mountains are painted more smooth compared to the sand because it is further away and therefore looses more details, when in fact if they were both of the same distance the mountains would have a rougher edge than the sand. The sky consists of two main shades, whit and light blue.

The water seems to be a reflection from the blue sky because the sky has a very rich sens of colour, so it is a good idea that the artist chose to cover more than half of the sky with white clouds, or else the strong blue will overpower the aqua water, so they will not have to fight for attention.

This particular painting overall is quite smooth with a few different textures for the different types of objects in this environment. There are dabs to show movement and texture, but not too much so that it emphasis on colour too much. This painting definitely depicts a great example of a beach.