Hidden Beach - Painting on the West Coast

Hidden Beach, 9 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2018

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I know I have been missing in action for a couple months, and I am happy to report that all is well with me! Thanks to those who checked in! Once I finished those large commissions, I got my house and studio back in order, and I took a break! We traveled some, had a long visit with our daughter and her children, and just enjoyed life. 

This is a painting from our trip to Carmel, CA, one of our fall excursions. Hidden Beach is a small cove, off the hiking trail at the end of Point Lobos. It was a bit of a hike to get down to, and I had a fabulous quiet morning painting the waves and rocks in a lovely patch of shade. (The bright sunlight can be challenging and I forgot my umbrella, so that shade was a welcome surprise.) Very few hikers ventured down the path, so I had the "beach" pretty much to myself. It was awesome. 

Here are some other art-making moments... You will be happy to know that even though I was taking a break, my studio was in full use!

Mist On The Rocks

Mist On The Rocks, L. Daniel, 9 x 12

Back at Point Lobos on day two of the Weekend with the Masters... 
I studied with plein air painter Joe Paquet, who is passionate about painting, art and life. The day was overcast and foggy, and Joe did a great demo showing us how he paints air and atmosphere into his vista paintings. We started with an underpainting of all the shadow elements using cobalt blue, black and lead white (or flake white). Sadly, I didn't think to take photos of that stage so I can't show you what it looked like. My goal here was to create distance between the various receding elements and the underpainting helped me get the values set correctly from the beginning.

Addendum... it turns out that my friend, Leigh Sparks, took pictures at the workshop and happened to catch my painting at the early stage. Here is the underpainting using cobalt blue, white and black. Color was added on top of this. Thank you, Leigh! :)