Original Watercolor Painting, “Plein Air, Looking SE from Alki, 11:30am-12:30, 8.11.23”, watercolor, 22 x 30”, 2023

What comes to mind first about this piece is the extreme time pressure I made it under.  I knew I had to be in the U district at 1pm, starting this painting in Alki at 11:30am.  The scene was too beautiful not to paint - I was drawn to the lapping waves and the wet sand they left on the shore, the dark silhouette of the outcropping of concrete, with people observing the Sound, and the playfulness of the shipping cranes and other industrial building populating Harbor Island and the horizon of Beacon Hill behind.  I love the color of the water at this time of day, midday to early afternoon.  It is a blue with a significant amount of red in it, and I am always reminded of the work of Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla, his masterful plein air oil paintings of the waters on the beaches of Valencia, the accuracy of his reddish ultramarine blues.  The clouds this day were doing wonderful things, so I began as quickly as I could with the sky, to leave some white of the paper for the white of the clouds, then working into the lightest colors of the beach, the ultramarine water, leaving white for the noon sunlight sparkling along the horizon line.  Just my luck that a couple was observing the waters as I painted the concrete overlook.  I don’t ever contrive figures or boats or birds to appear where I haven’t seen them, but if they appear on their own, fair game.  I considered, at about 12:15pm, calling it a day and returning on a different day with similar conditions… but instead I pushed as rapidly as I could to render the rocks in the foreground and the waves on the beach, all in one furious go, as I knew I’d have to leave in fifteen minutes to make my U-district appointment.  I was glad I stayed.  I didn’t quite nail the effect of the waves reflecting the brown of the sand, nor did I do true justice to the reflections on the rocks, but for the time I had it was a decent effort.  I re-visited similar waves conditions in the painting “Plein Air, 10-11:30am, Waves at Golden Gardens, 10.3.23”.