After several days of rain I made the most of a brief break in the weather and went to paint at the local beach. It's just a ten minute trip from the studio but I can't think of a more challenging environment in which to set up an easel: it was cold, windy, it rained and the easel blew over. I weighed the tripod down with a bag full of stones. It fell over again.
Anyhow, despite all this I managed to get a painting down. This is my first plein air seascape.
View Across to Edmonds (plein air). 8x10, oil on linen panel. 2015.
As usual I premixed most of the colors then got the paint down as quickly as I could. The cold weather made the paint difficult to work with and I used both brushes and painting knife to apply it.
The idea behind the painting was the feel of the light in the sky contrasted against the dark land and sea. Since the clouds were moving so rapidly, I had to pick one particular moment and stick with it.