On The Beach, 30 in 30 - Day 1

With the new year comes new resolutions and challenges.  I've decided to start the year off with a challenge of a painting a day for 30 days led by Leslie Saeta.  She's done this before and in the past I've never participated.  I usually have a hard enough time finishing one painting each week but I decided to take advantage of the motivation I'm feeling with the start of the new year.  I know plenty of artists routinely finish a painting each day.  For me, the hardest part of this challenge will be picking what to paint.  I'm pretty sure that you are going to see a lot of fruits and vegetables sitting on a table.  : )

This painting happens to be fairly large but most of them will probably be small.  This took me more than one day to paint.  The beach where the photo for this was taken is dangerous for swimming but it's very beautiful.  The waves really do break right on the sand like this so swimmers would get slammed if they chose to swim here.  Sometimes the waves are so forceful that when they break, it sounds like a shotgun firing and the buildings shake.  Mother Nature knows how to get our attention, that's for sure.

Happy New Year everyone and thanks for looking at my paintings.  Your interest and comments mean a lot to me.

On The Beach
Image Size 12" x 30"
Acrylic

Wave Abstract

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a demo at the National Watercolor Society by Kathleen Conover.  She is really nice and an excellent teacher.  Her technique is really fun.  She does under paintings and then adds a mixture of gesso, water and matte medium and covers the painting creating texture.  Some of the old painting shows through and gives a nice effect.

As I was watching her demonstrate, I got very excited because I have so many paintings that are rejects that I can't seem to throw away but can't decide how to fix them.  This technique will work perfectly to reclaim them.

This painting started out as an abstract several years ago.  I had created a horrible color combination and a design that didn't work.  I wish I had taken a picture of it before I added the gesso mixture so you could see how it looked in its previous life.  Anyway, it had a dark line that suggested this wave shape so I went with that.  Kathleen used watercolors for her paintings but for this one, I used acrylics.

I'm really happy with this painting now.  I like the energy and color mixtures.  I plan to repurpose all of my unsuccessful abstracts using this technique.  It is really fun and I feel very fortunate to have learned Kathleen's technique.

Wave Abstract
Image Size 22" x 15"
Acrylic

Crash

This is my first attempt painting a wave using watercolors.  I was excited to try it and I liked the format of this piece of watercolor paper that I had already torn in half (11" x 30") that I was planning to use for another project.  It is Arches 300# cold press paper.
The right side of the paper is a bit smoother than the wrong side which I would have liked to use, but I used the wrong side because I didn't want the huge water mark that Arches paper has to show in the painting.  That has ruined many of my paintings.  I still have a lot of Arches paper which I will use until it is gone, but it is no longer my favorite.

Before starting this painting, I saturated the paper so that I could get some interesting soft edges but had forgotten how much the paint moves on this heavy paper when it's really wet.  I intended to paint this using only transparent watercolors and didn't want to have the really hard edges that are created from using resist, but had forgotten how much the paint moves on this heavy paper and I lost a lot of my whites.  I used white gouache for the edges of the waves and some of the foam area.

I'm excited to try more of these wave paintings using watercolors.  I think this has a more luminous feeling that the ones I've painted in oils.

Crash
Image Size 11" x 30
Watercolor

Foam

I'm still playing with the sea.  It's so weird that I'm so into these seascapes.  I've never had any desire to paint them before.

I've always loved how the foam remains after a wave has swept onto shore so I thought I would try to paint that.  I'm pretty happy with this but I want to paint more versions of this so I get to know it and hopefully get better at them.

Foam
Image Size 6" x 12"
Oil

Nature's Fury - Watercolor

I had a lot of fun with this one.  This is another piece of that handmade paper that has the beautiful deckle edge.  I love this shape and the deckle edge adds an interesting little extra something to it.  I had to seal the paper because it has no sizing in it.  Once it's sealed, the paint sits on the surface of the paper. It's a different way of painting than on a regular piece of watercolor paper but it's really a fun change.

I wanted this to portray the energy and force of water as well as how dangerous it can be.  I think this painting shows the energy and force but maybe the colors are too pure and pretty to convey any sense of danger.  You know me and my love for pure colors.  I guess if I'd used blues with more gray and other dull colors that would have given it a more dangerous feeling but that wouldn't have been nearly as much fun to paint.

Nature's Fury
Image Size 21" Diameter
Watercolor