Showing posts with label sand beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sand beach. Show all posts

Sunday, August 24, 2014

"Sandcastle Builders" (oil on linen; 11" x 14") sold


sold


Sandcastle building is a big deal at Prince Edward Island, Canada.  I even saw a park ranger doing a demonstration of how to build one at Cavendish Beach.  You need wet sand.  The girl in the painting is about to go get some sea water with her bucket!


Watercolor sketch for "Sandcastle Builders"; I cropped it for the painting and got rid of the beach bag and blue bucket on the right.

The transparent underpainting.

I started putting down opaque paints.

As usual, I developed the figures, along with the umbrella, last.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

"Sunset Beach" (oil on linen; 9" x 12")


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I did four pet portraits in a row for my Facebook fans and am now totally out of pictures.  While waiting for more pictures to arrive in my inbox, I thought I would go on an artistic vacation.  This is a sandy beach in Kauai, where my family vacationed in early 2012.  We saw several sunsets there, all of which were spectacular.  The sunset doesn't last long, but what a golden moment it is!

Monday, August 1, 2011

"Sea Caves of California" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold


sold

Reference photo


Some vacations are more memorable than others.  The trip to California three years ago was one such happy memory maker.  There was a family wedding, which was held at a beautiful vineyard in Napa!  Visits with family were special enough, since we don't get to see them often as we live so away.  But one additional week spent just with my own family in the glorious light of California keeps generating a painting after another.  I must go back to California!

As I am focusing on water in Bobbi Pratte's landscape class this summer, I decided to paint from the above photo taken somewhere in northern California.  (You know how it is--after a while, you don't remember exactly where you took the pictures.)  The picture doesn't show much color in the sea caves because they are in the shadow; but I can see many different color changes in the water itself.  In the distance, it is cobalt blue.  As the waves approach the sandy beach, it changes from cerulean blue to a blue tinged with ocher.  The wet sand looks lavender.

I like the design too.  Three concentric waves all point to the sea caves, which I painted with warm, dark paints.  Sometimes I don't have to do anything other than just paint as Nature took care of the design for me!