Sunset Cliffs Reflection

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This painting of Sunset Cliffs is done on La Carte Pastel Card and measures 23"x26.5".  I have been studying the book by Robert Henri called "The Art Spirit".  Though this book was assembled in 1923, I find myself identifying with many of his  thoughts.  I thought in particular for this painting the following quote was appropriate ..."the most vital things in a landscape endure only a moment"...The colors I used I thought were right for the moment based on my memory of it.  The movement of the waves and the contrast of the light on the horizon and the shadows upon the cliffs all came out as I remember them.

Twilight at Sunset Cliffs

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The contrast between the ever changing waves as they reflected these other wordly colors and hushed buzz of all the people who had come to watch the sunset was the feeling I was trying to convey with this painting.  These ideas were expressed as well as I could at the time.  I feel like I should try this painting again.  The rocks are not subtle enough.  The colors in them were as interesting as the waves and the reflections of twilight in them.  I want to impress more detail in the rocks without making the waves any less important.

Sunset Cliffs

That early evening was hushed and full of energy as the day closed with a quiet bang.  The light impossible.  The shadows infinite.  The haze blending the details as the suns last moments made everything that came before it that day irrelevant.  This painting is finished but the subject was not captured as I would have hoped.  I will paint Sunset Cliffs again.  This series is done.  This is not the last painting but for this post I wanted to try and put into words what I felt the evening I was inspired to paint this landscape.

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.

Last Light at Sunset Cliffs

This painting is the last of my Sunset Cliffs series for now.  I feel like there is much more that I have not yet captured.  The glow of the light on the cliffs is what interested me in these landscapes.  I plan on visiting again this summer and getting more reference photos from Torrey Pines and La Jolla cliffs.