beside the sea side

Have started a couple of oil paintings.  First I had to rescue my easel, which I had lugged up from the Drawing room 2 floors below. Then some swine knicked it.  Thus I had to in turn knick one from someone else and this time paint my initials on it.  So far, so good.
In an attempt to break out of my usual shtick I decided for some reason to sketch a cairn of stones on a beach. Tutor had suggested "Shrines" as a spin off from the man falling off bridge, and I claimed that people construct piles of stones to commemorate people they have lost.
Tutor [another one] disputed this, claiming cairns are on top of mountains to record the height or something.  Narrow lives these teachers lead.
Then while the paint was sticky I reverted to default condition and started a mature lady as Venus, riding in on the waves.
tutors were once again non plussed