I started this out on the Ides of March as Christina went down the beach looking for driftwood. This is on the north shore accessed through the same cul de sac from which I painted an overcast scene last year. I started this out in shades of olive, blue and violet. The sky and water, painted so thin, had successful effects that I attempted to carry through as I went forward. I was more successful with the sky than the water. Over and over as I look back the original effects in the water seem well observed and what I did afterwards seems more in the nature of an abstracted construct of what “waves” do. I’t a good lesson to find a way to hold onto the first touch as best touch.
What’s just as clear to me is that the shores, sand, and tree lines were not best on the first touch. I ended up spending a good bit of time in making them have clearer shape and more detail. But it was a late stage thing to deal with the foliage in the trees. It remained blocky until nearly the end. I also went through a couple of variations on the lagoon, opening it up to the bay and the closing it back off. I like the final effect of the lagoon.
I also had to straighten out the horizon line and that gave me the opportunity to put in more tiers of tree lines to convey the effect of distance. I worked quite a while on the lower left thin sheet of shoreline wave. I am thinking about adding a light green tinge to this to bring out a certain harmony down below, thin out the little sandbar, curve the shoreline and lighten up the sky below the clouds. Seems like these days I’m more prone than ever to rework details. I wonder what that means.
