Tuesday, April 24, 2007
About 2 hours outside today, working on the beach foreground, sand, and a mother and child, walking hand in hand. I love how painting sand and water, you can continually change the look by layering more colors and strokes and it never looks "wrong", it just keeps changing as you progress. One thing I try to remember when I am painting is to never be afraid to add more paint, more colors, a new texture. This was drilled into me by a drawing teacher in college who kept telling me that sketches were never something to save, but practice work. So, it forced you to go for movement, and try to capture things quickly and with out perseverating on details. When I paint sand and water, I often think of Harriet Matthews, telling me not to feel any one spot of my painting is sacred. Things can always be changed and made to feel loose and fresh if you keep the attitude of a quick sketch in mind. Detailed views of "Heart's Desire Beach" below (Click to enlarge):
I added details today on this little 6" x 6" painting. This is the natural wood frame I have purchased for all my 6" x 6" paintings. It adds some depth and width to the tiny canvas and goes well with the yellows in both the beach scenes. Now I will move on to work on the waves and the man flying his kite on Limantour beach, below...
I added some of the figures into this little painting that I started this morning.
Two, tiny, 6" x 6" canvases... You can see I am just starting to rough out the background colors today. These will be beach scenes from Pt. Reyes: One is a close up of two mothers and their single children at Heart's Desire beach, with a seagull flying in the foreground, and sailboats in the background...the second painting will be of Limantour Beach; the ocean with a man flying his dragon kite before a breaking wave...
About 2 hours outside today, working on the beach foreground, sand, and a mother and child, walking hand in hand. I love how painting sand and water, you can continually change the look by layering more colors and strokes and it never looks "wrong", it just keeps changing as you progress. One thing I try to remember when I am painting is to never be afraid to add more paint, more colors, a new texture. This was drilled into me by a drawing teacher in college who kept telling me that sketches were never something to save, but practice work. So, it forced you to go for movement, and try to capture things quickly and with out perseverating on details. When I paint sand and water, I often think of Harriet Matthews, telling me not to feel any one spot of my painting is sacred. Things can always be changed and made to feel loose and fresh if you keep the attitude of a quick sketch in mind. Detailed views of "Heart's Desire Beach" below (Click to enlarge):
