Surfs up!

Theres another painting I have just finished. It is another 18 x 24. This one is on its way to a show at the historic Old Lyme Art Association. I painted this at a place called the Ovens near Bar Harbor, Maine. Those of you who paint up there are thinking, where is THAT? Well its on the northeast corner of MDI but, you pretty much have to know someone to get there. In the 19th century when Bar Harbor was a summer resort for the super wealthy, this was in the guidebooks and was a frequently visited spot. I had seen old pictures of it but had never bumped into it. A fellow who owned a house near there invited me to come and paint using his cottage as a staging area.. I don't believe there is any public access to it. I had to paint this at low tide, so I could get onto the beach. Here is what was actually there.

I have been talking a lot about modifying the landscape in small ways. But this is am example of a major reworking of the landscape. I stood on the beach and started the painting, but when I got home, I made up the surf . Notice also that I have left out a stairway some jerk built down this cliff face . I am amazed he was able to get a permit to do such a thing.

When I was in art school my teachers derided traditional painters as not creative. I offer this job as evidence that a great deal of creative imagination can and often should be brought to landscape painting. When I got the painting home it seemed like all that beach wasn't working. Putting the water in seemed like it would make a far more interesting painting. The water had to be made up, I had no photo reference for that. I have painted a lot of seascape over the years so I knew sort of how to do it, but I don't think I have ever painted actually looking down the length of the breakers. The design is pretty out there, but I think it works. Just barely anyways. Here are a couple of the early stages of the painting on location.

This is my initial lay in. You saw me do a lay in with raw umber, here is one in ultramarine which is, like I said last night, an acceptable color for me to have under my shadows. There was a lot of blue out there, and I intended to put in the beach at this point, and a lot of the sky note was reflecting down into the sand. As usual, there is no white in this and I am pulling it out with a rag and putting it down with a brush. It is real thin.

Here It is a little more developed. I have started top lay color in over a pretty complete monochrome drawing of the subject, It does take some time to do the monochrome underpainting, but it often saves me big problems with my drawing and design later.I don't have shots of more in between stages of this painting unfortunately, I have had a hard time remembering to shoot the painting during the various states of its development. I an working on that.I get so entranced working on the painting that I forget.

I want to remind any one who is interested of the upcoming workshop in Jaffrey New Hampshire. Here is a link to a list of materials for you who are coming. There is still room in the class and if you want to sign up, go to the side bar on the right, and up there at the top is a link that will take you to a page where you can do that.

I have about four more posts I want to do before I return to chronicling the history of American landscape painting. I think its good to mix it up a little bit. As excited as I am about art history, I know there are readers out there who really come for art tutorials, and I don't want to run them off. See you tomorrow.