Every painting begins, of course, with the proverbial blank canvas. The elements of composition present a new challenge, every time: line, shape, size, position, color, texture, density. Today I opted to paint at Deer Lake State Park, and my challenge was to capture the intense morning colors of autumn in the dunes fronting the Gulf of Mexico. My best friend and I walked over the long boardwalk to the beach where I left her to her writing. I return to a midpoint on the boardwalk and started setting up only to discover I had left my regular palette and paints in the studio! So back to the parking lot, to get my trusty back-up, my Guerrilla-box, a minimalist plein air kit that goes with me everywhere for that plein air painting that just can’t wait, which holds the 5 colors I consider the minimum – alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow pale, cadmium yellow deep, thalo blue, and ultramarine blue, and white of course. I’m counting the walks to the beach and back, and to the parking lot and back, as my exercise for the day! I’ve attached a few photographs to show what the dunes really look like, though the off-and-on cloudiness did not do it justice. The view that I chose was very busy, with goldenrod sprinkling bright yellows through the reds of the grasses. Below is my end result, and under that, a few photos of Deer Lake State Park, on Scenic 30A in Walton County, Florida.
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Thanks. I am traveling in Miami area. Hope to paint this afternoon. Thanks for the inspiration