PAINTING AT THE BEACH
It's a summer weekend and my family and I are at our favorite place in the world, Anna Maria Island, FL. Our beach house has the best light and I always take my painting with me. The tarpon is nearing completion. I was very apprehensive to add the background. First, as I mentioned before I wasn't sure whether to add the bay bottom to anchor the painting, but my son loves the look of the fish floating so I'm leaning that way. Second, the size of this canvas is 15" x 47", that's a lot of surface to cover. And finally, this is the first time I have done a painting in this progression; first doing the major objects then adding the background. Well....so far the first layer has gone very well. I love the movement of the oil paint. I used to paint exclusively in acrylic and you definitely cannot blend such a large area in the same manner. I painted in this first layer using a cross-hatch stroke and love the surface it creates. This photo shows the first paint I applied, starting with the middle depth color. I then added the surface color, with some swirls to define the surface of the water. I thinned the surface color a lot with medium to make it more tranparent, the green base painting really shows through. I'll go back over to lighten it with the next color hopefully capturing the luminousity I'm looking for. Lastly, I added a dark shade at the base of the canvas as the water gets darker near the bottom. I need to let this dry thoroughly so that I can add the next colors in glaze form. You can see more steps in the process on my website.
It's a summer weekend and my family and I are at our favorite place in the world, Anna Maria Island, FL. Our beach house has the best light and I always take my painting with me. The tarpon is nearing completion. I was very apprehensive to add the background. First, as I mentioned before I wasn't sure whether to add the bay bottom to anchor the painting, but my son loves the look of the fish floating so I'm leaning that way. Second, the size of this canvas is 15" x 47", that's a lot of surface to cover. And finally, this is the first time I have done a painting in this progression; first doing the major objects then adding the background. Well....so far the first layer has gone very well. I love the movement of the oil paint. I used to paint exclusively in acrylic and you definitely cannot blend such a large area in the same manner. I painted in this first layer using a cross-hatch stroke and love the surface it creates. This photo shows the first paint I applied, starting with the middle depth color. I then added the surface color, with some swirls to define the surface of the water. I thinned the surface color a lot with medium to make it more tranparent, the green base painting really shows through. I'll go back over to lighten it with the next color hopefully capturing the luminousity I'm looking for. Lastly, I added a dark shade at the base of the canvas as the water gets darker near the bottom. I need to let this dry thoroughly so that I can add the next colors in glaze form. You can see more steps in the process on my website.
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