Foggy Haze

"Foggy Morning"
"Haze Abstraction"
I define vacation as painting near an ocean beach minus cell phones and computers which is why I haven't posted anything in a while. My favorite time is early in the morning. I love sharing with just the fewest beachcombers and the gulls. Having just returned from the Jersey shore I am reluctantly getting back into daily life but the memories of those early morning paint sessions has me already planning for my next escape.
The haze, fog, & light presented a great opportunity for more value and temperature studies. All my paintings for this trip were 5"x7" oil on linen mounted on archival museum board. I recommend this surface when traveling. It's extremely light and compact, allowing me to carry what I need in a tiny bag.

"Shore View"

I painted this around 9am. My point was to give a good peek of the shore. Plus the dunes and the water are my two favorite beach elements.

All my paintings done while traveling are small, 5x7 to 6x8. I'd like to work larger but I don't have the strength to carry more than a small backpack of gear. Sometimes I see something that I think I'd rather tackle larger but the hassel of carrying a large canvas just hasn't been worth it. Oh well, isn't there a saying, "good things come in small packages."

6"x8" Oil on Linen (artist collection)

"Push/Pull" 6x8 oil sketch ($145. framed)

These two paintings were painted at different times of the day and weather. This first piece was painted around 7pm in rather high winds. The waves were really pounding in and pulling out with great power. In order to get the curve of the shore I was in ankle deep water when the waves rushed in. I loved how that felt. I hand-held my paint box because the wind would have blown over my plein air set-up. I went after capturing the emotional feel of the moment rather than worrying too much on the formal issues. Still, a simplistic yet strong composition was very important as I hoped it would help hold everything together.

"Morning Calm" 6x8 oil sketch

This was my first beach scene and morning out to paint. The early morning air held a bit of fog/humidity and was very calm. In the distance I could see just make out Wild Wood, New Jersey. I was trying to capture the expanse of sky, sand, and water. Maybe I should have left out most of the sand???

"Heading Off" (Sold/Private Collection)

Painted this on the Jersey shore in Stone Harbor at the end of the afternoon. I was attracted to the shadows created by large clouds moving across the beautiful blue sky. It was tricky as the light changed from cool to warm but I felt it was predominately cool shadows and warm light.

6"x8" Oil study ($145. framed)

"Avalon Dunes" 6"x8" oil

My next few post will highlight some of the oil paintings I did while vacationing on the Jersey shore. Although I'm really glad to live in this high-tech age, I discovered living without a computer and cell phone was really nice, for a while. Instead of grabbing a large mug of coffee and answering emails, I headed to the beach and worked on 2-3 paintings every day. Most of the paintings were palette knife pieces because an excited on-looker kicked over my turp. can (and easel) but this ended up being a happy accident. I really liked how painting with thicker layers of paint forced me to focus on accuracy and kept me from being tentative. Besides trying to get accurate values I'm pushing how far I can go with abstraction and yet still be representational.