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Exiting the Golden Gate Bridge on the South side I made a few turns and just happened upon this beach. When I started painting this scene it was mostly overcast but an hour into it the sun came out and the whole scene changed. So instead of making things up I just started over. Can’t control Mother Nature.
Filed under Art, Beach Paintings, California Trip, Landscape, Locations, Oil Painting, Plein Air, Seascape
Greenwood State Beach 7×6 in.
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I started painting this one at about 4pm when the sun was moving toward the West but not yet setting. There was a great contrast happening on the beach at this time. The orange sunlight hit the rocks and created cool blues in the shadow areas. Also, I was amazed at just how bluish-violet the wet sand appeared as the waves receded back into the ocean away from the beach.
Filed under Art, Beach Paintings, California Trip, Landscape, Plein Air, Seascape
Here are a few pics my wife shot at Patrick’s Point.
Met some new people while I was painting here. These folks are from Kansas. Hi guys!
Filed under California Trip, Locations, Photos, Plein Air
Battery Point Lighthouse
Lighthouse Kitty (I guess this is why no dogs are allowed)
Here is my Keiser-inspired cigar box. In certain situations this is more convenient than my usual set up.
This is a great little hostel where we stayed 6 miles North of Klamath.
Filed under Artist Equipment, California Trip, Locations, Photos
Patrick’s Point 5×8 in.
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Loved this spot. I’ll have photos in another post.
Filed under Art, Beach Paintings, California Trip, Landscape, Locations, Oil Painting, Plein Air, Seascape
Battery Point 8×5 in.
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First stop Crescent City, CA. I just love the soft grays at this time of year in Northern California. They make even the redwood trees on the mountains in this painting appear to be a flat purple shape.
Filed under Art, Beach Paintings, California Trip, Landscape, Locations, Oil Painting, Plein Air, Seascape
When I paint I typically use about ten different colors; Cadmium Lemon, Cadmium Yellow light, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Deep, Viridian and Titanium White. If you’re not an artist this is just snobby artist speak for some variations of yellow, red, blue and green colors and white. I rarely use these colors straight from the tube and find that when mixed together they give me most of the color I need to paint the subjects I’m interested in. Although a tube of “California Sky on an Overcast Day in September at 9 a.m. ” might be a nice addition but I haven’t seen it in any of the local art stores. Let me know if you have.
When I paint outside I do add one color to my palette and that’s cerulean blue, which is a warm blue. It helps me when I’m mixing a color for the sky on a bright day or some of the ocean water mixtures.
Here’s a photo of my box of paints. There’s about 25-30 tubes of paint piled up in there but I only use about half of them…the rest are really souvenirs from trips to the art store wanting to try a new or different pigment. I’ll often decide later that they have no practical use for me and those tubes eventually find themselves at the bottom of the box.
I just noticed in this photo that you can see two tubes of Alizarin Crimson next to each other; one almost empty and one half used. This is typical of me, using paint from a new tube when I haven’t completely emptied out the first. I’m not sure why I do this, although it seems to be consistent with other things in my life. I have a stack of books by my bedside that I’ve only read parts of. I just find the parts I’m interested in, read those parts, then pick up another book.
A more simple explanation is that I just like the feel of pushing out the paint in a new tube. It’s like squeezing out toothpaste from a new tube of Crest. There’s just something satisfying about it.
Filed under Art, Artist Materials
As a kid, my Mom took my sister and me to the beach often. One of her favorite spots was Aptos Beach near Santa Cruz, CA. There are so many great places on the coast. I’m interested, what are your favorite spots? (leave comments below)
Aptos Beach near Santa Cruz, CA
Filed under Locations
This won’t be the only mention of Joaquín Sorolla on this blog as he is one of my favorite 19th century painters. What impresses me the most about his paintings is the way he captured the effect of sunlight on his subjects. I’ve seen few other artists who paint in this genre achieve this strong of an effect in their work. It’s as if the light is shining from within the canvas of his paintings out toward us; all that sunlight dancing around reflecting off each other. I particularly love the subtle variations in the shadow colors he used. Look at the colors in the white dresses…. they’re white but there not… they’re red and blue and green… and white.
Sun-drenched coastal scenes, women wearing large hats and long white dresses were some of his favorite subjects. He was also fond of painting children on the beach. Here’s a few…
Walk on the Beach, 1909. Joaquín Sorolla
Beach of Valencia by Morning Light, Joaquin Sorolla
The Beach at Biarritz, 1902. Joaquín Sorolla
Two Children on the Beach, Joaquin Sorolla
Photo of Joaquín Sorolla painting at the beach
Filed under Art, Artists, Beach Paintings, Painters
A wet panel carrier is a good idea to have around, especially on long painting trips. It keeps those paintings protected when your heading back to your car or hiking around looking for the next spot. I’ve learned that a nice carrier is far more efficient than a thumb and index finger. That usually doesn’t turn out so good.
I’ve seen artist’s use all kinds of makeshift wet panel carriers from empty pizza boxes to small suitcases. This artist makes his wet panel carriers out of Styrofoam and Duct tape, pretty clever.
In September I’ll be taking a wet panel carrier made by Artwork Essentials. It holds a good amount of these small linen panels and is very sturdy.
Filed under Artist Equipment
I’ve been using Google Maps to prepare for the trip in September and have been thinking about how amazing it is to have the Internet as a resource. With Google Maps, anyone anywhere can zoom in on an area of the globe and get a small preview of what they might expect.
Recently I found another great website, the California Coastal Records Project. You can view the entire California coast from a helicopter viewpoint and see some great detail of the terrain. I spent an hour flipping through the entire coast of California from Crescent City to San Diego looking for some possible painting spots. It’s like I’ve already been on the trip… well, minus the weather, the sunburn, and ah.. everything else.
We are pretty lucky to live in this time of such impressive technology. Makes me wonder how we lived without these things. I wonder what the great artist’s of the past would have searched for if they had been living now. What would John Singer Sargent have googled?
Beach at Capri, 1878 – John Singer Sargent
By the way the link below shows where Sargent painted the above painting. I’ve never been to the Island of Capri but my wife tells me it’s really beautiful. At least I can peak at it from here, thousands of miles away. Pretty cool.
Filed under Artist Resources
Occasionally I use these painting panels made by RayMar Art for my daily paintings but for this trip to the California coast I’ll use them almost exclusively. They are oil primed linen canvas mounted on panel and are about 1/8 inch thick. I really like the way the paint just glides across the surface of these panels. Just so happens I received my order from Ray Mar today. These are 6×8, 6×7, 5×8 inch panels… don’t they look pretty.
Filed under Artist Materials
This blog documents my 20 day trip to the California coast starting on September 11, 2007. I am going to start from the northern tip of the California Coast and work my way down to the southern tip of the state… San Diego. I’m planning on painting everyday and will post what I’ve done here along with some of my thoughts and photos from the trip (and hopefully video). I hope to check out some of the great coastal areas like Patrick’s Point, Monterey, Big Sur, Pismo Beach, Laguna Beach, Sunset Beach, Santa Barbara… so I guess it’s appropriate that most of the paintings will be ocean and coastal scenes, beach paintings and the like…you know… all that California plein air stuff. So thats what the Beach Paintings blog is all about. Okay, here goes…
Justin
Filed under California Trip
