Having painted a few neat and tidy sorts of pictures I decided to use a palette knife, a larger sheet of paper (20x16 inches), paint straight from the tube and just see what happened. I did a thin wash with a big brush for the background after I'd painted the rest of the picture. The paint is thick and chunky in places (briefly chanelling Van Gogh!). The horizon needs adjusting. So far I like the effect. Maybe I'll do another one.