Beach Painting

I just returned from a painting trip to California with my friend, artist Joan LaRue. This I have assigned this year as “the year of water” I realized that painting water lilies is just not enough. I was determined to stare intently at the Pacific ocean hitting the beaches of Coronado and La Jolla until I could make sense of it and paint that beautiful, rushing water right on my canvas. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. What is? But in the end, I feel like I began to understand the waves as they hit the beach, but I know I need to go back again, and again, and again. There really is only one way to get to Carnegie Hall (or The Metropolitan Museum) and that is still “practice, practice, practice.”

If you want to look at the work of some great artists who have obviously put in the time at the beach, google Joaquin Sorolla, any early California plein air painter (Edgar Payne, for one), Winslow Homer (mostly the Atlantic, but great wave action!) or a great beach painter, Peggy Kroll Roberts (she’s alive!).

Spend some time studying these artists and others, then go back to the beach and try again. It’s a tough job, but.....