Lonely Boat in Nacala

Nacala is a port town in northern Mozambique, built around one of the deepest natural harbours on the east coast of Africa. The bay is surrounded by small local fishing villages, and it was near one of them, early one morning, that I found a single boat tied up at the water’s edge with nobody around.

The scene had a quiet loneliness to it that I wanted to capture. The boat rests in the shallows, held by a thin rope that runs back up the golden sand. Around it the water shifts from violet and lavender to soft blue, with gentle waves rolling in and breaking in white and yellow along the shore. On the left, a dark green headland reaches out into the bay, and the sky above is a wash of blue and grey, lit by the early-morning light.

This painting took me about four hours, and I was pleased with the result.