I started with an acrylic under painting in 2 values. I scraped ochre, and violet thinly on with a palette knife, leaving the white canvas to make a third value. Then I mixed some big puddles of paint, and painted fast, waiting for the figures way down on the beach to get into position. I captured them with a few strokes each, cleaning up my mess using the negative space around them.
I quickly spread a warm, orange-rose underpainting where I saw all the warms. I used acrylic and a palette knife, and was playing with the shape and design of the composition. I wished, as I was painting the sunset, I would have covered the whole canvas, or perhaps put a different color under the non-warm section because I love the way thick paint skips over the heavy textured canvas, and the white skips left something to be desired.
10″ x 8″ oil on panel
I started with a panel primed in Naples yellow, and painted fast.
The water is warmer than the air, so it is fun to wade, but my wet feet feel really cold after the sun goes down, and the temps drop into the 40s.
Beautiful day to watch the waves, and soak up some vitamin D, even if it is a bit cold for bathing.
If are in need of some sunshine, or just a vacation…sprinkle a little sand in your sandwhich and enjoy these next posts…We are going to the beach!
Note to any artist who is wishing to paint more in plein air. Painting outside is awkward, and hard, and invaluable to what it adds to your ability to see and paint inside and out. My advice: practice. Practice setting up your easel, or paint box, practice inside when no one is watching and work out the kinks of your equipment.
I will paint you a scenario from last spring…. I set up to paint the sunset on the beach, in oil, with a new travel easel. I spend the summer painting sunrise and sunsets plein air, in the DESERT, in PASTELS. Imagine my arrogance at thinking I could handle this new medium, subject, and hardware with ease. Well, as beach sunsets at popular vacation destinations tend to do…a crowd gathered, and my easel offered more of an attraction. So I was setting up a new easel, in the sand, and the wind, with a crowd curiously looking on. I had NEVER set up this easel, it was almost like the old one. ALMOST, did I bring the instructions? Nope. Was I wishing I would have practiced at home? Hmmm, maybe this screw goes this way? Or perhaps I have to turn this bracket around? I was dropping bolts in the sand and cursing myself. I finally sat down in the sand embarrassed. I forced my way through the painting, but it was awkward. I wasn’t familiar with the colors I would need. Finally I rode my bike to a coffee shop the next day to use wifi, and found a video of how to set up the easel. NOTE: parts have been reversed for shipping the first time you set up this easel you will have to completely disassemble and reassemble. I learned my lesson.
I decided to take a bit of my own advice today. Paint a sunset (from a photo), no wind, no crowd, no pressure. I set my timer and set to work, I learned there are colors I wished I would have had and wished I would have pre toned the canvas. Good lessons for the next beach painting session.
While riding my bike on spring break, I looked down and noticed a beautiful little plant with tiny leaves. “That looks like thyme” I said to my husband. “How do you know?” He asked. “I’ve always had thyme in my garden. Will you hand me a little? I want to taste it and make sure.” Tasted just like thyme. “Look we are surrounded by it, it is all over the trail” I exclaimed. “Could you use it”. My husband asked. “Yes thyme would make our fresh seafood dinner taste lovely.” I responded. We rode along in silence for a few minutes, and my husband wisely said “you should replay our whole conversation in your head, but replace the word thyme, with the word time.”
The next day we found all the thyme on the trail in bloom. The thyme became a metaphor for my family vacation, I wanted to notice it, use it, enjoy it, add a little extra to everything. I wanted our time together to bloom.
I painted this in the car traveling home, using the last bit of time left from our vacation.
I managed to paint only one of the many cairns on this beach. This is the first beach on the Kalalau trail, it is very rocky and the surf is rough…so the rocks are wonderfully smooth. Previous hikers have stacked many, many rock cairns on this beach. If you are a hiker you know that a stack of rocks on a trail is called a cairn, and it symbolizes that you are to head that direction on a trail. To find many of them together, is not only impressive, given a tremendous surf, but inspiring and encouraging.
There are many different kinds of beaches…they all have their perks. The gulf coast of Texas might not win a beauty contest, but the sand builds the best castles. The beaches of Cuba have meters and meters of shallow water after the waves break, which make them perfect for kiddie swimming. Rocky beaches can have the most wonderful water because the sand doesn’t mix in the tide and muddy the colors. In my opinion, black sand beaches have the most wonderful sunsets. The water rests on the beach after the tide comes in like a mirror, reflecting whatever is happening in the sky. You reach this particular beach by walking through an Ironwood Pine forest. The Ironwood pine is unique in my experience, it’s needles droop downward in the most beautiful, dream like way, and its cones are teeny tiny, about the size of a marble rolled into more of a pine cone shape.
As an artist, the forest and the black sand make for an easy dark to make an interesting composition this time of day. I love sunsets, you have to work fast or light changes, so it allows for a quick, energetic study. I almost missed this sunset, the more dramatic colors were before I set up.
I photographed this painting in its micro plein air setting. I lift out the tin of paints and use the empty box bottom as a palette, and water cup. The bottom corner holding my water, and then then I use the upper part to mix my colors. The tiny system works great, I encourage any artist out there to make there own, mine is made of mint tins and half pallets of water colors.
I painted this on a break from snorkeling. The ocean was composed of many blues and greens which made it fun to paint. The multicolored fish under the water, the seal napping to my left, and the turtles popping up their heads you will just have to imagine.
paintandsimple 