Tangiers, The Beach by James Morrice

When the viewer first sets eye on Tangiers, The Beach, the eye will go straight to the beautifully painted aqua coloured ocean. It's unique colour not only attracts its viewers but it also pulls the eye towards the smooth flowing mass of water, not allowing the eye to leave. There is hardly any flow or movement that leads the eye to another part of the painting so the only choice the eye has is to continue to allow the greenness to captivate it.

The eye then slowly travels down towards the lower part of the water until it finally hits some waves that washes up along the shore. The difference in motion directs the eye to a person and his donkey on the right side of the painting. The eye rests on the person's laid back posture, unable to depict if it is a man or woman from their big oversized jacket with long bare legs. From what the figure is wearing, it seems to be a nice sunny day but not hot enough to be rid of the jacket. The eye then zooms in and travels up the figure and takes interest in the tiny red hat that barley fits on the person's head. This further suggests that it is more likely to be a man than a woman as women would have wore big hats filled with flowers or no hat at all if they were to walk along the beach like so. Traveling down the man's face, the eye notices that there are hardly any facial features, let alone any expressions. The man's companion is strangely a donkey but is treated like a dog as it is let loose and free as the eye catches sight of what seems like a rope for the donkey.

The donkey is not restrained by his owner but yet it chooses to stay faithful by its owner side. The eye then takes a step back and views the entire painting because the man and his donkey does not lead the eye to anywhere else. The eye is stuck once more. After zooming back out, the eye then notices sand at the bottom of the painting, where the waves wash up to the shore. The eye scans the surface of the sand and notes its rough and textural surface while noticing the different markings in the sand which shows the hard parts of the sand compared to the soft parts, and the dry compared to the wet, and the random rock pieces that happen to be lying there. There is nothing left at the bottom of the painting so the eye moves back up the sand, past the waves, only to be captivated by the aqua ocean again.

After pausing for a bit the eye continues to move upwards until it catches sight of the smooth and distant mountains in the center. The eye travels horizontally along the flat mountains before moving upwards to the top part of the mountain to be greeted by a very abstract shape. The soft and blurry blue and white spots creates such confusing that the eye has to take a step back once more to view the painting as whole. Once the eye zooms out, it realizes that the abstract shape is actually the sky filled with big and strong clouds.