Painting Water

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

The painting Ocean II was created from a smaller plein air study created at sunrise on Isle of Palms, South Carolina. I liked the composition and colors, and especially the way the wet sand mirrored the sky so that they seemed to become one surface. The study convinced me that an exciting life-sized studio painting could be made of the subject. My artistic goal was to see how little detail information would be needed to express this moody sunrise over a calm sea. The painting was executed on a masonite panel that was first primed with 3 coats of gesso over an initial coat of acrylic sealer. Because I wanted to achieve very soft, semi-transparent, luminous colors in this piece, I planned to paint it in a fresco-like style similar to the techniques I use in my work in watercolor. The idea is to paint all the colors quickly, ala prima, working wet into wet, using a medium such as Neo Megilp to keep the paint open, transparent and workable for a longer period of time. I like to start wit…