Fading Twilight at Sunset Cliffs

                                                  This was my second painting in the series from Sunset Cliffs.  The sun was just dipping under the horizon leaving this pink afterglow on the cliffs.  The colors on the rocks were shifting by the minute as I hiked along the edge of the ocean.

Incoming Tide at Sunset Cliffs

This painting was inspired by a plein air painting article in Southwest Artist Magazine.  The artist Scott W. Prior http://www.scottwprior.com/  painted this same scene from about the same vantage point.  This beach is in the older part of San Diego in the Ocean Beach part of the city.  These cliffs are an amazing park at the edge of the city.  At sunset hundreds of locals gather to watch the sun go down.  The local surfers climb down these crazy paths leading to the beach.  I would not try it at all.  The surfers climb down with their surf boards which seems like something only the most experienced mountain goats would attempt.  The quality of light as the sun scrapes the Pacific changes everything.  The color of the cliffs with the last light of the day turns a beautiful landscape into something so intense it transends the cliche.  This scene is from the fall.  I want to go back to paint these cliffs during the summer where the light at sunset will last longer and feel stronger.