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| Study for larger painting yet to be named, 12x9, oil on linen |
Saturday I did this 12x9" study in order to work out some ideas before going to the larger 15x30" canvas. This reference was taken this past October while hanging out in the rain on Ocean Beach, SF, CA. We weren't the only ones crazy enough to be out in the rain. The red of his jacket with the reflection in the wet sand was just too good to pass up.
I had seen this red jacket coming towards me and so took a few photos. He then stopped to ask me what I was doing. Was I really photographing him? We chatted for a few minutes and I detected a French accent. He was fine with me wanting to capture the red in all that mist, but when he went on his way is when I got the photo I wanted.
My ideas are to work on gradation going from darker sand in the foreground to lighter near the sand bars on the right. Gradation of color as well. The sand goes from a blue-violet-y to a more yellowish. The challenge will be to make all that wet sand and sky (I cropped much of the sky out for this format) interesting with the color, values, and brushwork keeping it all fresh and wet looking. I can see in this photo that the sky either has to go lighter or the lighter sand has to go darker. They are too close in value right now.
2 comments:
Questions to ponder... Does an artist's eye ever blink? I think not as you never miss a detail as you survey your environment for subject matter: a yellow boat, a red jacket, a lone driver in an unending landscape. Just as the world would be less vibrant without the birds' songs, so would it be without artists capturing the world around us.
Good questions, and love your last observation. Thank you for a wonderful tribute to all artists.
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