Original Watercolor Painting, “Plein Air, Waves and Clouds at Alki, ~3-4pm, Windy, 2.7.23,” watercolor, 30 x 42”, 2023

The day this painting was made remains one of the most spectacular weather days I’ve seen since moving back to seattle two years ago.  I love painting at Alki Beach, as no matter what time of day or season of the year, Alki offers vast expanses of water framed by beaches, boats, wildlife, and ever-dynamic skies.  The wind was blowing furiously, straight at me, whipping up a salt spray from the water.  I was elevated about 10 or 12 feet above the water level of Puget Sound, and the waves were about 4 feet tall, just huge for this body of water.  The sun was behind a rain cloud, lighting it up in a glowing rust hue that had to be seen to be believed.  I loved how faint the distant shorelines became.  The tilted horizon line of this piece was not intentional, but a by-product of the setup I chose, at an angle to the direction of the wind and the concrete sea-wall.  The glare of the sun was so incredibly bright, and the effect on the waves around it was to darken and intensity their violet and aqua-phthalo blue hues.  Multiple times I had to desperately catch and secure my large 30 x 42” painting board (with this painting taped to it), because the wind was so violently strong it threatened to rip it from my hands.  I worked with one hand holding the board down, paintbrush in the other.