Painting Beaches

My painting. I don't always get a chance to paint in class, so this was a lot of fun!

Although the weather has been mild, we thought we would paint a beach scene to put up when winter finally rears its ugly head. I like to propose creating the possibility of 'surprises' in every painting. This time. once the simple layout was roughed in with charcoal, a palette knife loaded with gel medium was scudded over the ocean portion of the scene. In addition, natural sand was affixed to the beach area using the gel. While waiting for that to dry, the sky was painted in, then the beach area. Paint thinned with water was applied to the water area in successive layers until the level of final tone was almost reached. The gel resists the paint, and the area shows up as a lighter value. Finally, more brighter paint is scudded over the surface in successive value and colour layers, and light is added to the beach area. Voila!

The other beach beauties, including my unfinished one. Sorry, the image is a little fuzzy...