EACH POST IS ON A DIFFERENT TOPIC & REVIEWED REGULARLY.
Hello All!
Welcome to Post No. 15 about all things watery – aquatic life, seascapes, freshwater inspirations and beach paintings. Just to get you in the mood with a little water play, you might like to click on
www.sharkbreak.com It is a beautiful site.
Now I will begin with records I have of my own artwork and invite you to add yours…
The first slideshow below shows some artworks inspired by aquatic life (birds, frogs, fish etc.) I was very lucky to be exposed first hand to much of this wildlife through my late husband, John’s passion as a Naturalist. Our home at MacMasters Beach for over 20 years was full of salt water aquariums which housed a wide range of amazing tropical marine fish…along with seahorses, invertibrates and even at times a wobbegong shark, sea snake and blue ringed octopus!
The only major problem in 20 years was once when a sea snake escaped out of the tank into the living room (they are very venemous!) so John came home to find myself and the kids all on the front lawn instead of having dinner ready as usual! He quickly located the snake under a beanbag and took it down to the sea to let go. We had only had it in the tank for a short period to provide it with some peace and safety while it sloughed its skin and this was now complete. Here is a pic of the actual sea snake…
Perhaps a few of these yarns wouldn’t be out of place in this post later on (though the complete collection is available from Waterfall Springs Wildlife Sanctuary in my little book “Somethin’ Fishy” – see illustrations in Post No. 5)
Right now though, lets go to the wildlife paintings in watery environments. These subjects provide so many artists with wonderful inspiration…
If slide shows need activating, please click on top right hand X
Next, a slideshow of paintings inspired by the sea and estuaries (mostly based on the Gosford-Central Coast area north of Sydney where I live) but also some from further afield. These artworks have been created in an endeavour to capture some attractive element for example, atmosphere, effects of light or some of the wonderful natural patterns formed by nature…
Visiting the beaches holds extra appeal for Tony and I. Armed with sketch pads, we enjoy trying to capture the joy it affords so many people – especially in Australia where beachgoing typifies much of the Aussie lifestyle! Often little thumbnail sketches are sufficient to paint from later – not trying for any likenesses to people (we would never intrude on their privacy) but rather we try to capture gestural studies that depict action, involvement, mood or atmosphere. Here is some of this artwork to share with you….
A MINI TUTORIAL: Just to share with you my method in painting this seascape of North Avoca Beach, first is the thinly washed in underpainting in acrylics diluted with water, which lays out the composition and beginnings of the colour scheme. I had at this stage planned to put a person sitting on the rocks at the left…
While the underpainting dried (which is quite fast in acrylic paints) I mixed plenty of nice juicy paint in the colour scheme planned, picked up my painting knife (shaped like a small trowel with a raised handle) and built up the painting with texture. I just love the feeling of laying on paint this way and feeling the thick buttery texture. I added a little modelling compound to the acrylics to give them more body and didn’t dilute the mix by adding water at all. I worked the sky, headland and distant sea first, then moved to the rocks. Once that was dry, I then added the waves and all white areas. If I had tried to add this before the rock colours were dry, I would have muddied the whites. The idea for a figure sitting on the rocks was discarded in favour of the free wild touch by adding the seagulls instead. Here are a couple of close ups of sections of the painting…
I hope this may be of help to someone in planning a method of approach in seascapes. Painting knives take a bit of getting used to but are so satisfying once you can manage them. I learned painting knive techniques by using up any leftover paint and doing small textural experiments in a pad. I find almost everyone really loves to see and feel texture in paints – I guess it’s because there is absolutely no doubt it is ORIGINAL and not a copy!
Here are some close-ups of the texture…
Here another painting (of Tallow Beach) where I used painting knife texture with thick paint. It gives a very realistic solid look to the rocks in particular…
If painting knife techniques are not for you, there are other ways to achieve texture by the use of collage…e.g. in the painting below (entitled “Moonrider”) I used tracing paper crushed, glued and applied to the board with my fingers, coaxing the creases to follow the form of the waves. I then mopped up the excess PVA wood glue with a rag, laid a sheet of paper over and rolled firmly with a rolling pin to form the tiny creases. Once totally dry, I painted into the finished texture. Some people use tissue paper but I find it a bit flimsy and prefer a tougher tracing paper, but it’s worth experimenting. You could also use an acrylic texture or modelling paste and roll over crumpled gladwrap to get interesting textures similar to this…carefully removing the gladwrap before allowing to dry.
The above painting was for my son, Scott’s birthday close to 20 years ago. (He was and still is a keen surfer). It is framed behind glass and has stood the test of time, looking just as permanent and vibrant as when it was first painted.
Below is a demonstration painting using acrylics and actual beach sand collage. The rock textures were applied with a sponge and the shadows of the rocks were painted first in acrylic. Once all paint was dry, I then applied PVA white wood glue to all the sand area, sprinkled on the dry sand, tapped off the excess and allowed to dry. The underpainted shadows of the rocks showed softly through the transparent sand grains.
This next painting is in the complementary colour range from RED-ORANGE to BLUE-GREEN “Sunrise over MacMasters Beach”… (Note: to understand this colour mix, go to Post 11)
Some instructions for painting this next seascape can be found on Post 18…
Good luck and happy experimenting! Don’t forget to share your results if you wish.
___________________________________________________________
Cheerio for now,
Julie
Note: To view or leave comments, you may need to click on “Continue reading” below.
