Strange figures and vibrant colors make this picnic unsettling. The setting appears to be a sailboat in which a puffin sits beside a bare-breasted woman with a face like a mask. There is a dog in her lap and a striped tabby at her knee. Above the funnel (lower right) is the partial face of an obscure figure, presumably the lover. Food is present but unrecognizable.
It’s unclear if the woman, a recurring figure in his paintings, is an unflattering reference to his first or second wife.
See John Bellamy. Lovers by the Sea (nd). Oil on canvas. University of Edinburgh; John McEwen, John Bellany. London: Mainstream Publishers, 1994,2005.