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This painting was done during last month's Forgotten Coast en Plein Air event. I spent 10+ days in the North West part of Florida Coast with some 20 top-notch plein air painters and I think I ended up with 17 paintings. I started more than that - two or three a day, but I wiped quite a few, too. As far as these plein air painting events go, though, this was way beyond my normal pace. I guess there is something about this part of the country that compelled me to paint my Asphaltum off. Hanging out with my tribe and fueling with fresh local shrimp, oysters and beer didn't hurt, either.

 

 

 

I set up on the side of the road where I'd parked my car. The sun was beating down and it was also very humid. I could find no shady spot with a view, so I decided to just paint very quickly - my plan was to just block it in and finish it later. But once I got started, I forgot about the uncomfortable conditions and just kept going. 

 

What I wanted to do with this painting was to really emphasize the bright, white house and the sand. The harsh sunlight is what I was responding to, and I decided to try and push that impact by making the other things a little bit darker than how I saw it. The sky, the trees, the grass(?) and especially the ocean (which I painted it almost straight out-of-the-tube Prussian blue) are all taken down a notch in value.

 

 

 

 I had seen this kind of tweak in some of Sorolla's beach paintings and knew that it would work well in this case.  The trickiest part was maintaining this contrast while painting the white sand and the green grass. I didn't want sharp edges nor overly defined shapes because the pattern these two colors make is very organic and soft. However, I didn't want a blended soft edge because that would kill the contrast. So the solution was to try and find softness using broken edges. 

 

 This is not easy to do because if my shapes weren't good, I would have to fix it repeatedly, which would inevitably give me overworked blended edges, not fresh broken edges that maintained color / value contrast.

 

 

 

 Fortunately my brushes behaved and I was able to make effective strokes. You never know with these things. Sometimes you get lucky, other times, it's a big struggle. 

 

 The beer tasted really good after finishing up this one!

 

 If you'd like to add this painting to your collection, please email me. The price on it is $1200, frame / tax / shipping included. Nervous about buying artwork without actually seeing the painting? Not sure if it would work in your home or office? Why not try it out? If it turns out it doesn't work, just return it and I'll refund your money in full, no questions asked. I only ask that you pay for the return shipping.