Burn Off at Heisler

I have had a fascination with this beach as long as I have lived in Southern California.  The bluffs along the beach, the shape of the rocks, and their changing colors keep me coming back time after time.

As a painter with pastels, I find that it is hard to get specific instruction on the use of my tools.  I don't subscribe to everything that I am told by the oil painters that I paint with.  One of the things I do is I paint with sunglasses.  The reason they don't want you to paint with sunglasses is because your paintings will come out brighter than you want.  I will from time to time paint with the sun on my board.  They don't want you to do that because of the intensity of the color created by the light on the paint.  It creates glare.

The color of the board influences the color choices that I make as much as the landscape itself.  

The shadows on the rocks and the cliffs were not going to last so I captured them quickly.  The sky sets the tone of the whole painting.  The fog was burning off quickly so I made sure to get its essence first thing.

At this point all of the main shapes are in place.  There is some definition being established within the shapes.  Now is when further definition is created.  The darkest colors are represented in the painting.  Now is when the lighter values come into the painting and further define the shapes.

The light was changing quickly so I had to decide to what degree I was going to show it.  From this point on in the painting, I had to be careful to maintain my initial intentions with the painting.  In a short period of time all of the shadows on the cliffs would be gone.  The question was to what extent I want to show that light.

At this point I am attending to some of the smaller highlights within the rocks and establishing the feeling and color of the beach.

The finished piece is 24"X 36".

Burn Off at Heisler