Dunes Project: Slightly larger painting

On this 24×24″ gallery wrap called “Dunes Afternoon 24” took on a new palette. I wanted to make my brush strokes larger and use warmer browns and yellows.

More Beach Dune paintings

Continuing the dunes project to learn new techniques, I moved from 8×8″ small paintings to 3 20×16″ canvases. Each scene was totally made up form frequently going to the beach, walking over the dunes to the beach, taking photos of my favorite beach access walkovers. Not having a pictorial reference or photograph to “copy”. I had to use my memory to create shadows and highlights.
“Dune Kite Surfing”, “Dunes at Nite”, and “Dunes Sunset”…all for sale.

Dunes series has been a project all month

Not sure if I am correct but I heard that Monet did over 350 water lilies and pond paintings. So I decided to pick a landscape and explore different techniques and colorings of the same scene. I also incorporated this lesson while teaching my art students in October. One was started as a black and white painting and then thin colored glazes were added in thin colors. Once one layer was dry another color glaze was added for a luminous look. One was done with no seaoat strokes and large brush with thick paint. There were so many ideas that I wanted to attempt…
All of these are 8×8″gallery wraps. I made of the scenes without photos and had to figure out where the light would hit, etc. Let the lesson continue!!

I recommend doing this project. Choose any subject. Its all about the techniques. I learned a lot already and want to continue…

This was stage one before they were all completed.

Sunset on the Ocean

Still working on the series of Bodysurfing Paintings, “Lee Shore Wave” was just completed. Working with a warm and cool palette is challenging and since I made the scene up entirely from memories of swimming and surfing added to the challenge. I had to continually analyze and figure out where the highlights on the water would be and if they were reflecting the sky enough. The painting is 40×30″.

Request for pictures of wall space.

The Calm Before

We are preparing to evacuate for Hurricane Irma but have time of anxious waiting and preparing so I painted this. It is called “Calm Before” and is 30×40″.

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Sailing is a recurrent theme for my paintings

Big Swell is 30×20″ and was started 5 years ago and recently was tweaked.
Since I spend many years on the Pacific ocean sailing with my family. sailing still is a theme I work on. Top one is the new version. Below are additional sailing paintings.

Along the shore…

Another smaller painting completed. I wanted to keep the expressionistic feeling with larger brush strokes and energetic touches. “Blue Crab” is 20×16″.
Sometimes, the more I work on a painting, create details and textures, I lose the expressionistic style that I am aiming for. So this one, I called it DONE and am happy with the result.

Newly completed large ocean painting

This is a newly completed painting in the bodysurfing series. It is called “Ocean Swell” and is 60×48″. Many weeks of work were involved because of the size. I wanted to keep it impressionistic and loose. It reminds me also of my youth, sailing in my family boat to the channel islands off the coast of California.

Bodysurfing at Sunset Painting

This impressionistic 24×36″ painting was inspired by the last series I completed.

Bodysurfing Series: Final painting completed for a larger wall

While body surfing a couple weeks ago, I was floating on the crest of some rolling waves and the colors and calmness came into my head. I said to my friend “I am going to paint this!”
I went home and painted until late that night and the next week. I started with the 36×36″ painting and then decided to paint a similar painting in 24×36″. When it was done and I was looking at them side by side, I noticed that they almost looked like one painting. The next days, I worked on a third 24×36″. These could be purchased separately or all three. This impressonistic study makes me recall the feeling I had while floating.