Tybee Island Getaway

Last winter we visited Tybee Island, a barrier island between the Atlantic and Savannah, GA.    We drove from New England to this winter adventure. Traveling by car means we bring the "stuff" that would not make the cut if flying was involved.   For us, that meant our full complement of painting gear came along too.

I've procrastinated in posting these five paintings so I've decided to just share all the images in this one post, sparing you the details.     Potentially I would be making things up about the paint outs - since I can't remember a lot of details now that it is months later.

The exception is the painting with the angry looking clouds which was done from a photo I took.  We had taken a beach walk and we received alerts on our phones that there was a tornado watch (warning? see, I forget...the worser of the two).   It was so dark and stormy looking, and being from New England, we didn't know if it was something to be alarmed about.  I took a photo of the swirling clouds and dark water as we raced back to our VRBO - quite a vivid memory!   I felt it was worthy of a painting as the photo shot captured the beach, the sky and the water in various "unnatural" shades of green and gray.

 

Tybee Dawn from Deck

Tybee Pavilion Pier

Tybee Tornado Watch

Tybee Boathouse Tidal River

 

Tybee Lighthouse

 

 

 

Hot Vacation Week at the Beach

Hot Vacation Week at the Beach

Beach houses that are situated on the east facing shorelines of New England are lucky for many reasons.   One of the best reasons is that they have a perfectly clear view of sunrise.   As a morning person, I've noticed that often people will rise early and get right out onto the beach, especially the big family groups like in this scene.  It may have been too hot to sleep.   Perhaps they haven't gone to bed yet - ha.

 I liked this composition where the shade tent offered a dark contrast and some silhouettes against the orangey dawn.   I added some atmosphere to the shoreline figures to convey the humidity...more? less?   I'm all ears.... :)

Mid-June Morning in Green Harbor (aka Summer Serenity)

Summer Serenity - Green Harbor

Dawn occurs when the sun breaks the horizon; everyone knows this.   What dawned on me a couple of years after moving to Green Harbor was that the location of daybreak is vastly different between early summer and six months later - early winter.    In June, it seems like the sun is practically rising in the north and similarly in winter, the sun breaks the horizon line far to the south over Duxbury Beach.  This painting depicts a mid-June morning in which the sun has been up for a couple of hours, yet still hovers due east from our beach.   The colors in the clouds and water are tinged with spectacular pinks, turquoise and lavender, and the darker water to the right and left is a grey-blue.   The sun is poking through clouds and rays of light cast extra sparkles and glare,  but yet is not quite high enough to fully illuminate the boulders and sandy shore.  

I've heard it said that the French Riviera has similar light to Green Harbor.   And let's face it, if they said it, it must be true!

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Raising the Flag

Raising the Flag

Our glorious American flag is a treasured sight and is especially majestic when being ceremoniously raised by our precious soldiers.   In this scene, the back lighting of daybreak saturates the flag's colors such that the red leans toward orange, the white has a peachy yellow tone and the blue seems grayish indigo.   The strong contrast of the painting's values is appropriate for this noble practice and underscores the strength of the subject matter itself on this President's Day week.

Dawn Over the Jetty

Dawn Over the Jetty

Sunrises at the shore are often beautiful and occasionally spectacular.   It always depends on the clouds because they provide the variations, shapes and filtering that creates the prettiest color.   The fact that the water reflects all this colorful light doubles the brilliance.   This painting depicts a summer morning at the shore in Green Harbor, MA.  It really doesn't do justice to the scene, but in the absence of the real thing, the painting would be a nice reminder.

Winter Sunrise at the Dock

Winter Sunrise at the Dock - In Progress

It was a balmy 45 degrees on this early February morning.   I was taking every one of these warm winter days as a gift, and a day closer to spring!    The sunrise was the brightest part of the day and a thick blanket of clouds filled in as I painted.   Boats don't look half as large in the water as they do dry docked (literally and figuratively).   This large and imposing commercial lobster boat sat on its trailer in the boatyard, a green tarp tied across the top.    A dinghy full of moorings was wedged against the Harbormaster's office and a pile of lobster traps were stacked to the rear.   I was going after a dramatic composition and hoping that having a large mass to the right might be striking enough.



Winter Sunrise at the Dock

The peach glow of sunrise turned everything orange - orangey green tarp, orangey white boat, orangey gray pavement.   In contrast, the darkest shadows were as blue as could be.   Then just as quickly, the scene turned into a black and white photograph.    The objects didn't move and they were "painted from life" but I was improvising on color for the last 90 minutes of the paint out! 

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Brant Rock Sunrise

Brant Rock Sunrise - Stage One

One of the (few?) benefits of winter days is the relatively late dawn.  The sun had already broken over the horizon when I arrived but the colors were a memorable pink, yellow and lavender.     A winter storm over the weekend had the surf churning. The blushing sunrise and wave action inspired me to capture the scene as quickly as I could.   I've painted at this spot in the Brant Rock section of Marshfield on numerous occasions now.   It is a northeast facing shoreline which places the sunrise at the actual Brant Rock and the parallel jetty just in front of it.  

Brank Rock Sunrise - Stage Two

A bright and colorful sky influences everything in the scene with the same hues.   I mixed up plenty of the sky color so that I would have enough ready to mix into all the other lights.    The boulders in front of me were dark and blue, a sharp contrast to the blinding light shining off the wet areas and rim light.  I blurred the shine off the rocks to convey the glare - not easy since my initial attempts became contaminated with the dark paint underneath.  

(This is a good example of how inadequate photos can be.   The actual scene was colorful yet the photos are practically tonal with barely any of the pink or yellow visible.)



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Summer Solstice at Marina

Stage One - Sky and Structure

The sun rose at 5:05 a.m. on this day (summer solstice) and I had all good intent the previous evening as I planned a paint out at dawn.  Ha!   At 6:30 a.m. I arrived at the dock - still early enough to see the long morning shadows.      It was surprisingly quiet, given that it was a perfect "10" weather wise.  





Stage Two - Treeline and Water

There was a fishing expedition that was getting underway.   I gathered from the dialogue that they were four college friends who were turning 40 this year and they had chartered a manned fishing boat.   I got a chuckle out of their chatter which included subjects such as how many layers of clothing to bring, cell phone reception and the difficulties of having school aged children.    What a great way for old friends to reconnect!

Stage Three - Lobster Boats

The few lobster fishermen who were starting out early hopped into their dinghy (foreground), rowed out to their boat on the mooring, tied the dinghy to the mooring, and then motored to the dock in the big boat, picking up gear and crew.   Yes, the marina can be challenging because of the ever changing scene especially if the boat chosen for the painting happens to disappear! 

Stage Four - Docks and Dinghies

The complexity of the visual elements: sky, tree line, buildings, boats, masts, water, docks, pilings begs for simplification - that is, without oversimplifying. The chattering splotches of color was what I liked about the scene in the first place.  Luckily it was early morning, and for me, that afforded the best chance of staying disciplined.  Abstraction was my friend here in that the myriad of elements on the far shore became bursting dots of color.  Painting fast was also very helpful in this situation, at least for those things that changed, specifically - the color of the water (it got darker), the shadows (they got shorter) and the height of the tide (it got lower). :)

The substrate for the painting was new to me, an umber toned gesso hardboard from Jack Richeson.     I loved it!  There was no drag a positive factor for thick, palette knife painting.

Summer Solstice at Marina


The paint on this one is especially thick and I didn't dare clamp it for the ride back. This was a thoroughly satisfying paint out - and I was back to the studio by 9 a.m.!

Sunrise Along the Channel - Green Harbor

I was out extra early on this day because the weather forecast was calling for rain starting in the morning.    The wide open expanse along the shore allows a long view of approaching clouds.    The sun broke over the horizon shining for only about thirty minutes before being obscured for the rest of the day.   For the few moments of sunshine, everything was bathed in a gorgeous red-orange light.



Sunrise Along the Channel

There is a lobsterman's house on the Green Harbor side of the channel and during the winter, hundreds of lobster traps are stacked there.   The house was yellow, so couple that with the glowing warm light of sunrise, and the whole scene was stunning.   The taupy-blue shadows matched the ominous sky and complimented the warm orangy light. Actually, I may still warm up the yellow a bit before this one goes to the shop.

Maybe you have witnessed a similar scene where the sky looks oddly dark and cloudy, but everything in the foreground is brightly lit.   Weather changes can be very fascinating if we stop and notice!  




Dramatic Dawn at the Shore

Seagulls at Dawn

Every sunrise is different at the ocean but what they all have in common is that the colorful light gets reflected and multiplied by the water and wet shore.    We looked forward to the sunrises when we first moved to this location, and still we look forward to them.   December days may be short on minutes of daylight, but the sun rising between six and seven a.m. made it less difficult to be up and ready to paint the
color at dawn.

On this day, there was a layer of clouds on the horizon, but the rest of the sky was clear.   Known as the "high dawn,"  Eldridge's Marine Guild defines it as that a sunrise in which the first breaks of sunlight are above a cloud bank as opposed to breaking at the true horizon line.   Lots of dramatic bouncing light results from the high dawn.

Seagulls foraged for food in the early light and although a seagull's local color is white, the backlighting of dawn made them look dark blue with orange colored rim lighting.  The blue/orange harmony was dramatic.

Waves and Clouds Breaking

Waves and Clouds Breaking

A large low pressure passed just south of the area over the weekend and although we were spared the brunt of the precipitation, we still felt the ocean surge.   The surf has been up and the breakers were spectacular at this morning's sunrise.    When I got back from walking the beach, I ran into the house and grabbed a 9x12 canvas board, a couple of brushes, my palette, and a tin of turpenoid.  I was all bundled up from the walk and still pretty heated up so I put on some stretchy gloves and headed to the seawall to paint.

The plan was to capture the post storm breakers and clouds that were also beginning to break apart.  I didn't even bother with an easel and I painted quickly.  By the time I had cooled down,  this one was finished in the spirit of plein air painting - about fifteen minutes to be exact.  This is the jetty at Green Harbor River and the direction is roughly northeast.   What an exhilarating experience!



Muted Sunrise in July

Cloudy Dawn Sky Stage 1

The most spectacular part of a sunrise or sunset is obviously the sun and all the immediate atmosphere, clouds and long rays of light.   As striking as this is, and always tempting to paint, I have observed that there is a beautiful range of colors - pink, lavender, celery greens in the cloudy day skies.   Muted colors aren't for everyone, but I happen to like this scheme a lot.

Cloudy Dawn Sky Stage 2

Pristine Beach is Back

Right after the June Nor'easter of 2012, our beach became covered with thick rancid, red seaweed.   Despite multiple cleanups by the town and ordinary residents (like myself), the copious amount, especially between the boulders, caused an unbearable odor that lingered for weeks.    Finally within the last few days, the beach was back to a nice, pristine state, and I set off to do a sunrise painting.

July Sunrise Stage 1

I began with a canvas toned with warm light values of red, yellow and blue.   There was some texture from the underpainting which can be seen in the Stage 1 photo at the left.  There was a section of yellow and pale red in the underpainting similar to the colors of the actual sunrise. I planned the sunrise around that warm area of underpainting color and my plan was to leave the underpainting showing through for extra color.  I drew in the jetty and a strip of rocks that were visible because of low tide.

  

The colors became less vivid as the sun rose, and as is always the case with changing conditions, I had to be very deliberate about not "chasing" the light.  Empty tidal pools made dark swirled patterns in the sand. 

Cloudy July Sunrise