Even though it is January, here in Southern California, we just experienced a little heat wave. On Friday, I went to Laguna Beach on the north end of Heisler Park and set up to paint. I had worn several layers of clothing, but ended up painting barefoot and shirtless. Despite the warmth, it is still winter, which means that the light still rakes across the landscape at an acute angle and the light can be blinding.
Shimmering Sea 11 x 14, Oil on Linen
What drew me to this scene was that as you looked across the water, the foam on the water caught the light of the sun, yet to adequately capture that, I had to depict every other value as much, much darker. The second problem I faced, was the color of the water. As I looked at the water, I thought it looked violet then green then blue, red, yellow, orange, all at the same time. Clearly the hue was very desaturated, so I chose a color (violet), and increased the saturation (chroma). I thought that it may be an interesting contrast to the yellow glare. Lastly, I exaggerated the “S-shape” of the sea glare to lead the eye through the painting.
