89.  Original Plein Air Watercolor Painting, "Plein Air, 6:30-7:30pm, Beach with Cloud Cover, Coronado, 8.16.24”, Watercolor, 30 x 42”, 2024

Location: Coronado, CA

I had tried a few times before to paint this effect, rays of light shining through partial cloud cover, triangulating the position of the cloud-hidden sun.  I’d learned from the previous sunset piece in Coronado (“Plein Air, 7:50-8:20pm, Beach Post-Sunset in Coronado, 8.15.24”) where I could set up without the waves getting me (you can see the reflections in the foregound of sand recently soaked with water, still puddled), and just how incredibly wet the whole setup including palette and paper would stay, due to the mist of saltwater from the sea and surf.  The figures and gull in the foreground are blurry, thus, having to be put in wet-in-wet, wet watercolor over already wetted paper, allowing edges to bleed.  Paintings like this one left me hungry to explore waves more - of which I would get (almost) my fill this fall in the California Plein Air Events, allowing me to push the wave experiment as far as I wanted, to get obsessed.  Paintings like this one set an important tone for me, left me wanting so much more to explore the optics of waves, beaches, sunsets, reflections, and the pedestrians enjoying them.