Summer’s day

Four seagulls perch along the top beam of a tall dark wooden gate that fills most of the frame, its doors left slightly ajar to reveal a strip of pale sea and a small boat beyond. In the foreground a blue stool holds a scrap of white paper, and a wagon wheel leans against the fence at the right.

A warm golden sky glows through the narrow gap in the gate, contrasting with the deep blue-black silhouette of the timber structure. Broad, flat passages of paint give the gate a graphic, almost stencilled quality, while patches of green grass and the soft haze of the sky add warmth to an otherwise still, quiet scene.