shinglenest

Oil on canvas; a painting from 2008.
From one of my visits to Luce Bay up in Scotland. 
A late night walk along the shingle beach, bouncing over the scrunchy kelp and almost stepping into a scrape nest of three eggs.
Oystercatchers like clockwork toys, running to avoid the waves.
The boom of the sea on the shore; the undertow of the pebbles. The cries of the seabirds.
The smell of the beach; salt; kelp; putrefaction.
Something mysterious beneath the shingle.
Layers.