46.  Original Plein Air Watercolor Painting, “Plein Air, 3-3:50pm, Cook’s Beach, 9.17.24”. watercolor, 18 x 24”, 2024

Location: Gualala, CA

Event: Plein Air Gualala

Event Awards: 3rd Place Overall

Work-Specific Awards: 3rd Place Overall

With one day left to work on pieces for Plein Air Gualala, I had only made five paintings (that I could show, as I could not show the two 40 x 60” pieces, “Plein Air, 4-6:15pm, Wave Study from Above Pebble Beach, 9.14.24”, and “Plein Air, 1-3pm, Waves at Gualala Point, Fog, 9.9.24”). The event allowed me to display eight works, so I set off on the afternoon of 9.17 with the loose idea to make three paintings in a single afternoon. I’d already made three and four in single days in Easton, so why not now? I didn’t put any pressure on these works - I had already made work good enough to hang, so I felt very free. This was the first of those pieces, observing the waves from high above, the footsteps, the pedestrian on the beach, the reflection of the sky in the wet sand. This piece won third place in the show.