My intent in doing this painting demonstration was to share with others how I did it.  It is an account of how this painting came about. The painting was done on a 16” x 20” linen board that I had prepared myself. It was ready to paint on with three coats of gesso. I could go into why I am beginning to believe that either linen or canvas adhered to hardboard is the best support. I will save that for another page.

I am a realist at heart but I do admire the impressionist style. I am trying to get a style of realism that shows an impressionistic influence. I am still learning how to get that balance.

I live near Lake Huron and this painting is from many years of observing the beach scene. It is, in a sense, a summary of all the visual stimuli I have gotten over the years. The painting started with a collection of photos and subjects that would go into it. I taped the photos of the tree together. I wanted the tree on the left so I did a mirror image of the photos of the tree on the beach using my photo imaging software.

At this point I didn’t have the whole composition planned but I had enough to get started.  The items below are all I had for reference.

I put in my base colors for the sky using a mixture of titanium white , ultramarine blue , phthalocyanine blue and parchment white . I made a gradual shift from the deeper blue at the top to a much lighter blue 2/3 down; this point would become an horizon line. I didn't worry about overlaping the blue with the sand base color. Between the sky and the beach was going to be placed the lake color. Most of the acrylic colors I use are very opaque so the dark blues of the water would cover any of the sky sand or exposed gessoed board ( this is the white area you see in the next picture). I then applied the base color for the beach using a mixture of parchment white and burnt umber. I used gel medium with the paint in the foreground to create a texture and used my fingers and a palette knife to simulate foot prints leading to the beach. I had thought about getting some sand washing it out and applying it with the gel to the bottom edge of the board. It would have been a good experiment for me. In the end I chose not to add the sand, maybe in my next beach scene.

I then used a #4 bristle round brush and put in the cumulus clouds . I did a swirling motion because I have learned it creates a desired cloud effect. Clouds should not have any hard edges; they are water vapour and it takes awhile to get clouds right. I am still learning what not to do in painting. I have not mastered anything. I used parchment white and ultramarine for the clouds. Along with the swirling brush strokes I used my fingers and a rag to blend and keep the clouds soft looking. I should make note of two colors that I have found to be a great addition to my palette . This parchment white by Liquitex is basically an off white but has several pigments it . It is a perfect white for painting clouds. The phthalocyanine blue which is sometimes called phthalo blue or thalo is the main pigment in a common acrylic paint called cerulean blue. But I have found it best to buy the more pure form of this blue . It makes a great sky blue color when mixed with ultramarine. I used this phthalo blue as a glaze over the entire sky after the clouds were dry.  I used water for years to make these glazes but now I use a glazing liquid made by Golden. The glaze is just a wash with a small amount of paint pigment in it. I am new to the glazing thing but I have found it to be a great technique. In the sky for example if you give a magenta ( red) glaze or a yellow ochre or a light blue glaze you can create a real nice effect. It evens out all the color intensity and makes the sky more believable.

I used masking tape to separate the sky from the water. I used a mixture of paynes grey and ultramarine blue in combination with parchment white to paint in the water. The white comes in handy as a glaze close to the sky to make the water lighter as it recedes into the distance. Photos don’t always pick this up and when water is rough it may in reality look blue way out on the horizon . But it is a good idea when painting an hozizon line on a lake or ocean to lighten the area at the line between the sky and water , it gives the effect of looking into the distance. Painting is not always reality but rather the illusion of reality. You have to be careful at the tape line not to make the paint too thick. When you peel off the tape you don’t want a ridge at the horizon line. It won't look convincing . Its best to peel off the tape before the paint dries. I made the line where the beach meets the water a little wavy to give the effect of a wind swept beach; it would not be perfectly straight. After the painted water was dry I glazed it with a phthalo green . This gave the water a rich look that I liked . I glazed some parchment white at the horizon line once again later to soften the edge where water meets sky. You will notice in the finished painting that the lake can be seen right across the board. My first thought was to put higher grasses at the left side , thats why this next photo doesn't show water all the way to the left as in the finished painting.

I did a very light glaze with crimson on the sky wiping off excess. You just want a hit of crimson; too much looks terrible . After it was dry I highlighted the clouds again on the sunny side with the parchment white and created shadows under the clouds with a glaze mixture of ultramarine and paynes grey .

I have always made my greens with ultramarine blue and yellows but this time I used hookers green in this painting. It is a very dark green. In fact it looks black on the palette. This became the under painting of my big tree. I wanted a lone tree. My reference photo showed four trees together. The idea of the one tree better suited my developing theme of being alone. I will talk more about that later. I used some ultramarine in several spots in the under painting as well. I guess I wasn’t willing to abandon my trusted under painting color totally. I painted the entire tree in this color leaving lots of sky holes. The tree is made up of hundreds of tiny brush strokes.. On top of the dark green I put in mid tone greens, using a light yellow mixed with the hookers green. The trick is to let the dark paint always show besides the lighter greens. What would be the point of under painting if it was all covered up. Later I put the highlights in where the sun shines . I used light yellow right from the tube. At this point I use a very small liner brush . I just put very small dabs of yellow . If the eye sees too much yellow in a tree color it doesn't look right. Let the eye do the mixing. Yellow is light in painting. Little speckles of it on the sunny side of a tree can give you a sense of sunlight bouncing off the leaves. Sometimes I use white mixed with yellow to highlight the highlights. I have even at times put very, very small dabs of off white on the highlighted highlights - if that makes any sense. In this tree I didn’t get that crazy.

I used some of the darker hookers green right out of the tube to scrub in the under painting for the grasses. By scrubbing I  mean I used a cheap course 2"paint brush and used the side of the brush to make grass like texture.

At this point I positioned my paper cut outs of the items  that I would put into the painting. It was a tough decision because there were so many different placements that gave different flows for the composition. I had to place enough interest on the right side of the panel to balance the strong presence of the big tree. The catamaran with it's brightly colored sail would be used as a drawing force to direct the viewers eye to the right. There is a natural path that the eye enters this painting and the catamaran and the walking figure would guide the eye in it toward the beach. I decided to place the girl sun tanning on the right because the sun was shining toward her and I wanted her looking into the sun. The most logical place to position the man under the umbrella would be directly across from the girl under the tree. I realized afterward that this worked best because it continued a line of yellow along with the fence post  towards the yellow in the big sail. This line of yellow became another force that would direct the eye along the path toward the catamaran.

When the greens of the grasses were dry I used a pizza cutter wheel and the sharp edge of a palette knife to make the lighter colors for the grasses on top of the dark greens. I used yellow ochre and white for the grasses. I already mentioned that the yellow posts and rope were added to help guide the eye into the painting towards the beach; the shadows of the posts were a nice addition to the over all effect.

I made my shadows of the tree, figures, and the posts with raw umber, right out of the tube; this may not look photo realistic, but , that is exactly what I am trying to achieve in my work -a break from super realism. Photo realism tends to have very dark shadows.  I like the ideas  of  the impressionist painters who use  less black and more color in their shadows. I also like their use of high keyed colors.

I used a another technique of the impressionist in the grasses . I put brush strokes of yellow beside strokes of blue to allow the eye to do the mixing and see green. I had to enhance this photo to show you what I mean.

All that was left to do then was to paint in the figures and do the small touch ups.  I then posted the painted image at my painting forum  -About Painting.com . I got excellent input from other painters, and I made some minor changes . One of the changes was to add a red towel hanging on the back of the chair where the girl was sitting. This small dab of red on the far right made a big difference. It somehow balanced the visual interest on the right side. The red towel , red shorts of the man walking  and the red in the sail created another line toward the beach. I added posts on the far right too and it seemed to help the overall  visual effect. The rest of the photos that follow are close ups of some of the other areas of the painting.

You will notice that the figures are alone. This is typical of our modern culture. Many people today give off an air of self sufficiency  but deep down they are desperately alone. I want the viewer to first see the beauty of the beach scene. I was after that "I want to be there" feeling. But, after giving the painting careful observation  they will notice an underlying  theme of aloneness. Loneliness is not a feel good emotion but it is a strong one. In this painting I managed to get this secondary emotion  in there but in a very subtle way. Life can be an illusion and a painting can also be an illusion.

Hope you enjoyed the demo and the painting. Each painting is a whole new learning experience.

If you want to make comments  send them to me at  brrice2003@yahoo.ca