This is a 2 part series, of a beautiful beach in Texas. A good friend of mine lives there and commissioned me to paint “her beach” as she calls it - like how I like to say the Worcester Art Museum is “my museum”!

I knew this would present a couple of challenges from the start. First, I had to capture the feeling my friend gets when she walks there every day, of complete calm and how gorgeous just simple horizon lines are.

Second, I loved the very dark color of the sand and the very light colors of the “atmosphere,” but showing the two in harmony equaled problemes en perspectives as we say in french!

So, I decided to go with an old technique called “glazing” used by painters before the 1860’s (when the impressionists came in and started a small painting revolt), where you apply several transparent coats of paint, let them dry, then do it again…. like 15 more times

Well, I didn’t do 15 coats, but not far from 10!!! This allows the colors to really blend together, even if they’re completely different; very unlike the slapdash technique I love, where you see individual brush strokes, like in the waves. In the end, I was very happy to mix several techniques, and how it all worked together.

What is the place that you would call “yours” as a whole? A beach is definitely something I wish I could say too!