My Latest Beach Painting

I usually paint at the street fairs I attend. We were at a show this past weekend in Vero Beach, Florida, and I worked on two pieces. I completed this one last night here at home and I wanted to share it.

I call it Day Break. The photos were taken at sunrise on the beach at Indiatlantic, a small town about seven miles from us. I started the piece with my Friday morning Level Two watercolor class. We worked on it for three Fridays, and then decided to complete it at home. I put in about three hours or more after the last class. We'll start a new project this Friday.

This was a fairly organic piece, meaning we just started laying in washes without doing much drawing ahead of time. Our reference photo was pretty dark, and it didn't have the drama in the sky that we ended up with in the painting. Because it was not very restricted by the reference photo, each student's piece was very different.

Here are three of my students with their work. Buffy, Irene and Mike - each piece was really lovely. They all had slightly different compositions, and used their brushwork and colors to fit their own personal styles. They really did a beautiful job!