Painting at the Beach

How can I best capture a favorite landscape scene, and paint in the comfort and convenience of my studio?    Answer:  I can't. 

On the March day I started this painting, it was warm enough to walk over to the beach with all my painting gear.   I set up facing east looking out at the two jetties that form the mouth of the Green Harbor River.   The sky was a milky white with lots of high wispy clouds.   The water was very calm and actually was reflecting the jetty, which is unusual.  More commonly, the surf is too choppy to be reflective. 

In the foreground, A recent storm with extra high surf had uprooted copious amounts of red seaweed and deposited it in the form of a two foot deep strip for a good long stretch of the beach.  I included that too.

Here was the initial painting, still a few problems, although it has a plein air simplicity to it.   When I took the painting to the studio, the problem I addressed first was the color of the rocks on the jetty.   Ordinarily, there are three horizonal stripes of color on the jetty boulders.   The bottom of the rocks that spend the most time under water assume a destinctively green hue from a moss-like seaweed that clings to them.  The stripe above that, the middle level, is a combination of grays and golds with a tinge of rust.   The top stripe of the jetties tends to be a very light yellowish gray.  See the problem?  My painting did not match this color description.  I had been stroking in the boulders individually, not according to the water level color stripes.

Once the painting was dry again,  I used transparent color to make the three stripes of jetty color.  For the bottom, I used viridian warmed slightly with some cad yellow;  one big long glaze stroke along the bottom of the boulders.   For the middle stripe I do the same thing with raw sienna with some linseed oil.  After those were dry, I cap off the top rocks with an oily mixture of white/lemon yellow/cobalt blue.

OhPea Digging for his Stick

A strip of red seaweed has a fresh seaside aroma on day one.  This was day five, less fresh, but nonetheless very appealing to pets with their extra keen sense of smell.   I included my Grandpuppy OP digging at a stick in the seaweed.  To the left is the detail.

Far side jetty

Here is the detail of the far side jetty.

Here is a close up of a couple of the seagulls.  I 'm getting a better handle on making the stroke and leaving it alone.   I thought this was a good example of a few simple strokes that give the impression of seagulls soaring on misty ocean breezes.

See the "final" painting below.   I'm seldom completely happy with my execution of a painting and this one is no exception.   The placement of my puppy is too close to the bottom.   No doubt this was a result of not working out the complete composition at the beginning.   I really like that my "O" "P" is in it!