Design House

I got a call at home from a client that I have worked with for the past five or six years.  Beth is the owner of a full service interior design business.  Every year she offers her service as a fund raiser for the Orange County Philharmonic Orchestra.  Beth had her assistant reach out to me to see if I was interested in loaning a piece of art for the project.  Beth was interested in a seascape with muted tones in mushroom and various tan colors.  She wanted to know if I had anything like that.  It has been several years since I had created any pieces like that so I volunteered to create a piece specifically for the project.  It was a hazy morning with a chance of fog at the beach.  Jessica (Beth's assistant) said they needed the piece asap.  I asked for any color examples for the project.  Jessica said she would email them to me.  I had painted Rockpile Beach the day before. I went there again for the project because it was fresh in my muscle memory and it seemed like it would provide the color palette needed for the project.

Because this piece was going to be framed on short notice, I decided to paint on Wallis paper instead of working on a board which is what I usually do when I am painting plein air.  My plan was to do a water color under painting followed by a pastel over painting.  The piece was going to be large for a quick turn around but I like challenges.  The piece before framing was going to measure 24"X 36".

To speed up the process, I tried something different.  Instead of doing a sketch and then working up a water color based on the sketch, I did the sketch directly on the paper.  Because water color can be relatively transparent I worked to insure that the sketch would be visible when I applied the water color.  This added structure to the painting process was intended to speed up everything.