November Beach - Green Harbor

November Beach - In Progress

Sunny Beach in November

The sun was shining and the wind was blowing from the west making it a fine day to paint on our east facing beach. I've painted from this spot on Burkes's Beach on numerous occasions, but it is never the same, and it never gets old.  

It was a low angle midday sun, which actually produces more reflected sunlight than a higher angle sun, and still quite bright.  The temperatures were warm enough for both my personal comfort and oil paint viscosity.   We've already had a couple of strong ocean storms which had deposited plenty of seaweed along the multi-tiered shoreline.  Most of it was now a dark, dried-out, maroon color.   On the water, the few lobster boats that did enter the channel were stacked with traps, and I'm assuming they have been pulled out of the water for the winter.  

Sunny November Beach

Once my easel was set up, the next decision was where on the canvas the horizon line would be.  Two things convinced me that it would be toward the bottom, the first of which was the beautiful, shimmery sky of wispy high clouds.  The second factor was that the tide was coming in, covering more and more of the jetty.  I didn't want to place a lot of attention on skinny slivers of visible rocks.  So then, the sky would be the starring element, and the basic compositional decision of the landscape was made.   As for the water, the northern (left) section of the horizon was dark ultramarine blue in contrast with the (sunnier) eastern (right) section was much lighter blue, almost a cerulean hue.  

So here it is after the paint out.  The inner painter is telling me to add a lobster boat entering the channel.   Should I listen(?), is the question!