Little Bridge Oceanside - Martha's Vineyard

Little Bridge - Martha's Vineyard

It was my birthday weekend and my (incredible) husband surprised me with a trip to Martha's Vineyard.    He had revealed that we were going to be painting en plein air on the trip, but did not reveal the destination until just before we left.  Woohoo - Martha's Vineyard!   

Our painting gear and luggage fit easily into our painting van.  We headed for Woods Hole, Massachusetts where we drove right onto the ferry.   I loved it!  It was so easy and convenient, and surprisingly inexpensive, considering how it simplified things. ($121 round trip for two adults and vehicle). 



Paintmobile and Wind Blocker

Our first painting destination was the "Little Bridge Oceanside" situated at the northern most end of the Martha's Vineyard barrier beach on the eastern side near Oak Bluffs.   It was about 30 degrees and very windy, so we set up with some beach shrubbery and our vehicle blocking the northerly winds.   The bridge crossed over one of the two openings along the barrier beach to the cove on the other side.   






Little Bridge Oceanside - In Progress

Framing the scene seemed difficult because of the many challenges and choices.   My tendency was to "want it all" but I knew that would be too much for a short paint out.   Plus, including too wide of an expanse plays down the importance of the many elements.   I decided to zero in on the bridge and rocks because of the extreme darks underneath the bridge.   On each side of the little channel there was rip-rap that transitioned into jetties pointing eastward into the ocean.  


The sky color I had captured was right on the first try, but somehow, sand - no make that gravel - got onto my palette.  When I spread the sky color with my palette knife, I found that gravelly grains were scraping lines into my nice smooth clouds.  Arrgghh...sometimes debris in a plein air painting can be interesting.  This wasn't.   I did recover, but I probably lost the initial freshness and color, resulting in more blending than I would have liked.   
I worked each of the painting elements, the last element of which was the bridge railings.   I made angled cuts right through the pale, thick sky to the farside buttress.

Three boulders in front of me were rim lit so they were to be the center of interest.   Additionally pigeons landed on them at one point which I really liked.   Imagine, not exotic Martha's Vineyard seabirds, but pigeons.  Yes, I liked the irony of that.

River Channel from Bay Ave

River Channel from Bay Ave

This painting depicts a favorite scene not far from our house, with the marina situated on one side and the beach and dunes on the other.   It is the outlet of the Green Harbor River into the Atlantic Ocean.    The grasses were brown, the sand was beige, the water was grey and the rocks were dark shades of all those colors - a February color scheme!  The only non-drab area in the scene was a stack of newer looking lobster traps that were bright yellow and orange, sitting amid hundreds of older seaweed enveloped traps.

Cold Front that Ended Paint-Out

The challenge given this day's mostly gray skies was to capture the winter grayness but also depict "the moment" when rays of sun illuminated that the area around the new yellow lobster traps.

A downpour ended this paint out abruptly.   The clouds were quite ominous and the wind gusts may have been in the gale range as it actually blew the back doors of my van shut.   Amazingly, I had just stowed my palette and the painting fell to the ground right sideup.  It's the little things!  :))