Thursday, November 19, 2009

Sea Oats at Siesta Key-Plein air, beach view, sea oats, sand dunes, Florida beaches, top 10 vacation destinations, sea grapes, white sand beaches

SOLD
"Sea Oats at Siesta Key-Plein Air", 12x9, oil on Raymar panel (Note: You can click on the image to see the detail better!)

This morning was a perfect day to paint outdoors in Florida! The temperature was perfect and there was a slight breeze rippling through the sea oats just enough to create a delightfully subtle movement throughout the scene. I limited myself to only an hour and a half of plein air painting so that the light would stay somewhat stable. I finished all but the foreground sea oats there at the beach, and I added the oats with a couple quick strokes of the palette knife when I got home. I am very happy with this painting as it is a breakthrough for me-combining my attempts to become more accomplished with a brush with my palette knife skills in order to have the excitement of palette knife texture combined with the beauty of blended brushstrokes. I also incorporated my knowledge of color with a limited palette in order to create a painting that is more in keeping with nature's true colors without going tonalist.

Although there were a few people on the beach this morning, I decided to keep the scene simplistic and omitted the people from the scene. It always amazes me when I get home and look at my photographs of the scene that I have painted. They never look anything like what I had seen while painting! For this reason, I cannot emphasize enough (to novice painters) the importance of painting from life!

Here is the scene that I painted today, and a quick shot of me with what my Jewish friend Sally refers to as Hadassah arms flailing around the canvas.



Just one week ago, I painted outdoors on Venice's beach at Sharky's Restaurant on the pier. The weather was dreadfully cold and windy that day after Hurricane Ida had passed through the area. I thought it would be interesting to compare the two paintings side by side to see what a difference there is in light temperature only a week apart! (see below).

Venice Beach and Siesta Key are less than 30 minutes apart, by the way. Siesta Key to the north has been consistently rated in the top ten of American vacation destinations in recent years. While Venice beach is a bit more relaxed and attracts less tourists, it does not have the white sand of Siesta Key. What it does have is fantastic fishing and sharks teeth! More about that later;0)

Check out the difference in light temperature below!

Thanks for visiting my art blog.



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6 comments:

Madison Moore said...

Just beautiful Maryanne!
Madison
http://kmadisonmoore.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Wow! I LOVE it!

Pattie Wall said...

I love how you enrich the colors of the scene. This one is so inviting, I want to be there!

Anonymous said...

Interesting and beautiful art. have you ever visited http://paintdancing.com web site for The Painting Ballerina, book that originated the terms paint dancing, paint dance, paint dancer, etc.?

Anonymous said...

Interesting and beautiful art. have you ever visited http://paintdancing.com web site for The Painting Ballerina, book that originated the terms paint dancing, paint dance, paint dancer, etc.?

Daily Paintings said...

Beautiful piece!