Green Harbor Jetty

Green Harbor in December

Even though it is December, temperatures the day of this painting were in the high fifties.   With full sun and added warmth from the water's reflection, it was comfortable for painting plein air.   I have been wanting to do a beach painting to record the low angle of the winter sun.   The long, low sunrays give the water, sand and sky a cool northern look that I wanted to capture.

I set up at the base of the concrete public beach steps facing northeast.   The sun was shining directly on my canvas, my palette and my back.   The tide was coming up so I estimated that I only had about an hour.  

Green Harbor Jetty

Matching the color of the water was not hard because I could mix my color, hold it up in the bright sun and check the match against the horizon.   I measured up from the bottom of the panel to make sure the horizon line was level.   I then applied that dark mixture (ultramarine, transparent oxide brown and a little white) to draw in the horizon.  The mid-distance water was lighter (more sky influence) and I made that from cobalt, ultramarine and white.   The closest breaking water had more green in it (because of the churned up sand and shallow depth.)   I made that with some viridian, sap green and my mid distance blue.    For the long uniform waves, I first painted a dark skinny wedge that receded to the left.   I then painted dark brushstrokes of ultramarine, viridian, sap green started at the bottom of the wave's underside and curved up at a about a thirty degree angle to where the wave's break would be.  After I got all the dark strokes in, I used my palette knife to smear the darks against each other, not to blend, but to have them sit beside each other smoothly, like is common in these kind of waves.