Yet more stuff about surf and still no end in sight because I need to do demo posts and somebody did ask for this, I remember.

Above is a wave in the next stage, it has broken along its entire front and is now spent. The whole boiling mass of foam has been displayed and the wave begins to collapse, or better for or artistic purposes, it runs into a rock or headland. When that happens the foam explodes upwards often with a loud bass roar and spray shooting skyward. I call it, the giant puffball. Below is one of those. It too has its own distinctive anatomy. Lets explore that a little.

The spray in the giant puffball has form like anything else. Part of it is in the light and part is not, it also has within it variations caused by some parts of it catching the light and other parts in the shade, These are often relieved against one another like above. This also gives a look of volume. The spray rebounds from the rocks and its top is often carried away by the wind.

This is front lit and that gives definition to the various clumps or ropey shapes in the burst. Portraying this is always a game of sort edges and slightly harder accents. Below is my late friend Charles Vickery. Vickery used to come into my tiny gallery and sit at my easel. He would do little demo paintings for me. He didn't much explain it as he did it though. I took a workshop with him in the mid eighties. He explained a lot then. I wish I could find my notes from that. I know I have them somewhere.

He did seascapes every day for many , many years and got REALLY good at it. I am proud to have known him. This image is from a dealer who handles his work http://www.charlesvickery.com/gallery/

Rembrandt's crucifixion and more about surf

Rembrandt courtesy of artrenewal.org

Below is the scripture from the book of Mathew;

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah."Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him." And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

Above is a breaking wave, Last night we look at the beginning of this process, here is the classic view that seascape painters so often paint. The wave has broken, that is, the water from the back of the wave, moving faster than its slowing front wall has rushed over the front and fallen against the face and base of the wave. The water explodes into foam. Look at the left hand break and notice a few things. The water curves down in a semicircle. On that edge as it hits the face of the wave it begins to convert to foam in ever increasing amounts. As more and more water reaches the base of the wave it creates ever larger and often globular masses of foam. Below is a Frederick Waugh ( a devout Christian incidentally ) showing this in paint.

Waughs knowledge of the anatomy and form of the wave makes the anatomy of the breaker clear. It is so much better than the photo. This is an example of the problems encountered by those who try to copy a photo to make a seascape and the limitations of that. Because of the enormous size of the waves Waugh has shown the foam purposefully sliding down the face of the oncoming wave. He has characterized the globs into which the foam erupts to show the shapes that it takes. It looks thick like whipped cream.It has volume and weight. Behind the foam, is the back of the wave driving forward, and to the left behind that, we see the foam that has passed over the back of the advancing wave. Notice how the foam "grows" at the bottom of the semicircle as more and more water cascades down the front of the wave. Waugh has the whole thing backlit, that is something seascape painters love to do. This lighting shows up the form of the wave best, see how the foam is divided into light and shadow, just like on a figure or still life.

The second smaller wave over to the left shows another interesting thing about waves. the water breaking over the front is in an up plane and lives in the world of the light. That's important. That passage will often progress into the shadow on its way to the foam. The broken patterns of the foam from a previous wave are formed as the growing wave stretches it and tears elongated semicircular holes in it as the mass of the water increases. It is still functioning like a skin stretched over the orb of energy below the surface. Unlike the water though, the foam doesn't stretch very well, so it tears into holes and tatters. These foam patterns show the shape and planes of the rising face of the wave.

This is a powerful and extremely original design. It is arrangements like this that make Waugh so extraordinary.

The beginnings of a breaking wave

As a wave nears the shore its bottom begins to be effected by that in several ways. The first is that the orb of energy I described last night is lifted up so that more of it becomes exposed above the surface of the water. The wave "grows" in size because more of it is revealed by the lower level of the water about it's feet.

The second effect from the shallow water is s slowing of the bottom of the moving orb. This causes that orb to lean forward at a greater angle. As the whole system grows unstable the water from the back of the wave beginning to rush over the front. Below is a wave doing that. .

The cascade of water over the top has begun, when it hits the face of the wave it explodes into foam. Here's what that looks like close up.

The back of the wave is visible in this picture, below that the water becomes more aerated and then turns to foam. Below is a diagram of the surface of the water. As I explained last night, most of this water is a skin over the forces below, being stretched more than moved by the force of the rolling orb hidden beneath it. Oh, do do da day!

The moving orbs of energy beneath the waves

Above is a crude illustration showing how waves are "powered". Far out at sea, wind and tides acting upon the water causes orbs of stored energy to roll beneath its surface. These orbs move below the surface of the water and are elliptically shaped. As they roll forward, the water passes over them like a slippery skin. The orbs don't really carry the water forward but move smoothly beneath it, lifting it as they pass beneath the surface. A toy boat thrown onto the surface of the water will be lifted and then pass over the back of the wave rather than being moved decidedly forward by it.The same happens with the smaller wavelets (called secondarys ) on their surface, which are lifted with the skin of water and then ride up and then over the backs of the waves. In between the rolling orbs are the troughs of the waves.

These orbs lean forward at the top as they move. As these orbs of energy near land and their bottoms touch the sea floor, they lean evermore forward and rise higher in the water. As their bottoms are slowed by the contact with the sea floor their leading edge becomes even further ahead of their bottoms and the water on their backs rushes over their tops as a breaker. More on that next.

Waves out on the open ocean don't break like they do at the shore, but carry the foam on their tops and often pass under it, and leave their crests of foam behind, trailing it down their backs. Out on the open ocean they are often called rollers. Rollers become breakers at the shore in shallow water.