Figures by the Sea

A wonderfully serene modernist coastal scene dated 1987, depicting three elongated figures gathered along a sweeping shorelines, executed in oil onto canvas.

One figure appears to carry or draw in a fishing net, while a central figure stands beside a loosely rendered bicycle and a third looks out towards the water. Two small sailing boats punctuate the distant sea, reinforcing the painting’s gentle maritime character.

The composition is distinctly modernist and semi-abstract, reducing both the figures and surrounding landscape to simplified, almost geometric forms. The exaggerated proportions of the figures – with their long limbs, narrow heads and softly defined silhouettes – lend the scene a dreamlike quality. Perspective is deliberately flattened, with the rolling foreground, sea and sky arranged in broad bands of colour rather than rendered naturalistically. The delicate linear construction of the bicycle and net provides an expressive counterpoint to the more solid blocks of colour elsewhere in the work.

A beautifully restrained coastal palette dominates, built around powder blue, turquoise, aquamarine, teal and deep marine blue. Small accents of darker green in the sails and deep blue along the horizon provide definition, while the luminous blue sky gives the painting an airy, summery atmosphere.

The artist works with loose, visible brushstrokes, particularly across the sea and foreground, where layered strokes and variations in tone give movement and texture to the otherwise simplified forms. Elsewhere, paint is applied in broad, relatively flat passages, with edges left softly irregular rather than precisely delineated. Fine, gestural dark lines are used sparingly to describe the bicycle, net and smaller details, adding an appealing sense of spontaneity.

Overall, the work has a wonderfully quiet, nostalgic Mediterranean feel, balancing figurative storytelling with the decorative simplicity and colour-led abstraction characteristic of late twentieth-century modernism.

This oil on canvas is housed in a complementary slim white painted wood frame. The painting is in excellent vintage condition, and the frame has very minor marks.

Size: 68.5 x 68.5 cm (including frame)