Oil on canvas (2014)
This piece was inspired by a sunny day in Coronado, California. I was experimenting with abstracting the sunshine on the sand with blocks of light and dark to create slices of sunshine. I really wanted to simplify the seascape and focus on how sunny, clear it was. The water was so gorgeous…blues and greens, with endless waves, the sand—golden. The golden hour glow is so beautiful in the early evening, and the warm colors of the marine layer soften the horizon, making for an incredible evening on the beach. I wanted to show movement in the surf by dragging my palette knife, and scribbling with my paintbrush handle through the ultramarine to reveal the colours underneath using a technique called “sgraffito”. Applying paint loosely over crimsons, pale pinks and cerulean blues, with lighter thin layers of opaque cadmium yellows to soften the waves gently lapping the shore with a technique called “scumbling”.
These explorations are taken further in paintings like ‘Midnight on the Bay’ and ‘City by the Bay’.
An earlier, smaller version (a print) of this painting can be seen in the AT & T Commercial with Mark Wahlberg and Angelica Houston on the wall in the kitchen, at the beginning of the commercial. Sometimes I make several “sketches” on canvas, or photograph the work in stages, and some of those photographs get used in print for commercials etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS7bGtYl68w
Prints in a variety of sizes are available for sale here.