The Beatles are a key figure in contemporary culture. Paul McCartney is one of the most successful composers and performers of all time. He has written or co-written 32 songs that have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2009, had sales of 25.5 million RIAA-certified units in the United States. His honors include two inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1999), 18 Grammy Awards, an appointment as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1965, and a knighthood in 1997 for services to music.

For more than thirty years Paul McCartney has been a committed painter, finding in his work on canvas both a respite from the world and another outlet for his drive to create. His paintings had been a very private endeavor until 1999 when he decided to share his artwork with a public exhibition and a book titled “Paul McCartney Paintings.” 

"Beach towels" is one of the "summer pictures" which McCartney painted on Long Island. It is based on the sensations of a sunny morning on a bathing beach. But beyond that it is an example of the various levels of reality in painting. The combination of techniques, such as scratching, wiping and applying paint directly from the tube, clearly documents on the one hand the artistic process as it takes place on the canvas but creates on the other hand the illusion of objective realism, with the elements air, water and earth. In comparison to McCartney's other landscapes, here the horizon is set very high. The illusion of distance (and beach atmosphere) in intense shades of blue and ochre provides an effortless link to the pictorial level. The break in the perspective underlines the fact that this is a painting, an artifice, and focuses on the relationships between shapes and colors on the canvas.