Beached Boats

The red star on the map to the left is the location where I painted on this day.   This is a peninsula that is situated between Duxbury Bay and Kingston Bay.   I found a fantastic spot at the end of Samoset Road.   There even was a railing at the edge of a grassy access to which I could tie my easel.    The weather was glorious so I shot a video of it so you can get the sense of the bright, windy day at this shoreline.  Okay, and the bagpipes weren't there but I swear the beach (strand) views up in Donegal were quite similar. :)

I've painted water and dunes before and I'll paint them again because they are never the same.   For this painting, I used my palette knife almost exclusively.    I squirted out a generous pile of my fast-drying titanium white and mixed in Prussian blue.   This blue gives a nice fair weather sky color.   I didn't completely blend on the palette, but rather let some of the streaks of white and blue spread out as they were applied onto the canvas with the knife.   The effect came out like high, wispy fair weather clouds.   Next was the greenish blue sea color which was made from white, viridian and Prussian blue.   The mid distance ocean color had yellow from the shallow sandy bars just beneath.   As the tide hit its lowest point, the small boats that were moored just offshore, were now sitting directly on the sand, each leaning to one side.   

The beach grasses were all sorts of greens so I began with the far left, mixing in extra blue and cool naples yellow to help it sit back.  As the grasses and greenery got closer, I mixed in warmer yellows, golds and reds.   Some beach roses were to my immediate left and they cast interesting and deeper shadows on the sand than most of the thin grasses.    I decided on placing a sailboat and a small motorized boat next to each other.   They were sitting directly on the sand so they were leaning to one side.

Add caption

Roadside Buoys

Roadside Buoys - Stage One

Roadside Buoys - Stage Two

The southern portion of Duxbury Bay in Massachusetts is visible from many old hidden roads that dead end at the water.   I drove down a couple of them and decided on Harden Hill Road, one with space to park and a boat launch at the water's edge.   Since the road sloped down to the shore, the angle of my painting was more downward and a wider span of the water was visible.   The sun was high in this late May sky causing the color of the water to look lighter.   The furthest water was a blueish green, the mid distance water had more yellow (from sandbar?) and the closer shallows were lighter bluish green.   On the side of the road there were three old "No Wake" buoys waiting to be set in place out in the bay.  These were certainly the center of interest as the brightest and highest contrast elements in the scene.   Two oak tree trunks closer to the edge of the water looked very dark against the bright blue bay.  



Roadside Buoys - Stage Three

Roadside Buoys

I began with the sky and water which I applied with a palette knife.  I liked fresh, loose look of it and didn't touch it again.   The trunk and leaves of the dark oak were painted with a mixture of Ultramarine blue, transparent brown and viridian.  All the fresh spring growth was bright green.   I felt like the green I mixed to match was accurate on site. (Back in the studio, it looked unnaturally white.  I warmed up these greens with cad yellow.)  The many shades of green benefitted from the use of golds and Indian Red to break it up.   I used the same Indian red for the rusty chains attached to the buoy anchors.  I simply could not get decent lettering on the buoys between the erratic wind and my shakes, so I also saved that detail for back in the studio.

It's great to have nice weather again!