Big Wave Study

This was a massive challenge, I wanted the big wave to star, with all the wind and force, and the foreground to have a highly agitated feel of rolling movement that expressed the day I saw this. I wanted to do all of it with brushwork suggesting the details without getting out a rigger brush and putting it all in. This is part of Aspevig's idea of "knowledge gaps" that the artist suggests enough, but leaves gaps for the viewer to fill in from their own experiences. When a viewer does this the  discovery produces endorphins in the brain that leads to great pleasure and a very enjoyable viewing experience. 

It was hard to have the big wave star and not lose that to too much foreground competition. I scraped off the foreground 4 times and once got out a rag and took it back to canvas. I'm starting to learn that I can't do it all on one painting and to be happy if some part is there and to know the next ones I'll get more. 


I also created a lavender sky here gradating in warm-cool and in value r-l. I needed a lower value sky to get the blowing spray to show. There is a gentle S movement of light, (Rem naples yellow light, to carry the eye front to back) I used 2 whites a warm one and a cool one, something that is now part of my palette, with so much white in a seascape it helps to create more variety in the pale tones.


In the detail you can see how I'm using brushwork alone to make the suggested details. This work is  6x12, and if I eventually go bigger I can put in more with the space, working up some layers of glazing to enhance the depth.
detail 

the detail is nice by itself, its a good feeling when I get something into the painting that was felt the day I saw it.  

Final Exam

I set myself a challenge of 100 paintings of waves a little over a  month ago, and as I completed it, I set myself a final exam. I did these four little paintings from memory, to test all my skills. Most of the old seascape masters I've read say you must be able to paint the sea from memory to do it well. They used sketches and studies made on the spot but all of them spent many many hours just watching and studying the water and weather.William Trost Richards son said his father spent so much time standing in a trance on the beach watching water that people thought him insane. Then in the studio( many painted before the camera was so easy) they would rely on their memory and maybe a few small sketches. We artists today do not have or use our memories so much, and even in school kids don't have to memorize poems or the Gettysburg address like  they used to. For  seascape painter memory is a must, you can't just stop the water and light.  A camera is not much use either if you want to paint like the eye sees, it is a blind mechanical thing, the human eye is attached to the heart and mind of a person with feelings, something no camera has.

So this is my exam, 4 little works about 4.5 x5 inches each...this is a great exercise to try, it tells you what you know and what you don't.  This took about an hour total