Welcome to my second painting competition, where you can win one of my original watercolours

Please read on for full information.

The reference image

This photo is of a scene at West Mersea, Essex, and is the reference image for this competition.
(The location is one we might visit during my course at Dedham Hall next April for plein air painting!)
In the opposite direction there is an estuary and lots of boating activity, but here we have a quieter stretch of beach.  I was struck by this view as it presented itself on a recent visit.
I took more photos from close to this spot, but I chose this one for the competition as I feel the composition is ‘pretty good’, containing various useful elements, but part of your challenge is to make any adjustments that can improve it for a painting (think about position of figures, church, grasses, clouds, maybe even the boat…)
I have made the image black and white, so that you are not influenced by the colours.
You can right-click on the image to get the option to save/download it to work from.

Competition Criteria – your challenge, should you wish to accept it

Based on the photo above, create a colour (not black and white!) painting that has good depth, distance, atmosphere and interest.
The painting should aim to have vigour, energy, vitality.
The painting should include the use of both soft and hard edges, and at least one bit of ‘negative painting’ somewhere.
Feel free to use artistic licence to make adjustments to composition and other things – potentially quite major ones if you like – but the result should still be recognisable as based on this scene.

The prize
One of my original watercolours.  The winner can choose one of my paintings from either the Plein Air or Studio galleries on this site (with a few exceptions that I want to hold onto).

Entries should be emailed to me at jembowdenwatercolour@gmail.com
Please take a focussed, well lit photo of your work. It does not need to be a huge file size.
The closing date is November 20th.
The competition is open to all NON-PROFESSIONAL painters.

A few thoughts to bear in mind
Perhaps make some preparatory tonal sketches to test any changes to composition.  This is something I often do (at just a few inches in size and very rough) when working from photographs.
You also might change the mood, weather or light effect. When I took the photo it was a dull day, but perhaps your painting will be of a sunny one?
Colour is yours to use as you wish, to help you meet the competition criteria.
I hope the challenge will be a fun and useful exercise, and I’ll look forward to seeing what you do.

Questions
If you have any questions about the challenge please write them as comments on this post and I will reply here also, so they are kept together.

That’s it – please have a go!
All entries will be displayed in my first blog post following the deadline date, where I’ll also explain how/why the winner was chosen.

Happy painting!
Jem