The next step in this painting is to give it some interest in the ocean area. After all, it is literally"framed" by the shoreline, cliffs and the hills in the distance. The painter has some important decisions to make at this point: Shall the water be calm and therefore reflective or shall it has some waves or ripples and texture? This will change the whole nature of the water and the feeling of the scene. A calm surface will give you a feeling of peacefulness when viewing it and a textured surface will create some excitement. Since I had planned this to be a painting showing some action with fishing boats and whales, the textured surface seemed a natural choice. I began to paint wavelets on the surface of the calm, blue water.
After I finished the wavelets the water still seemed too benign. After spending countless hours on the ocean, especially in Johnstone Strait, I knew I had to add some more turbulence. Often the wind and currents change the reflection of the sky so that, in the distance, there is a profound change in the colour of the water and it becomes brighter and lighter if the distant water is calmer (less wind and current) or it turns darker and more grey if it is turbulent. Well, Johnstone Strait is turbulence re-incarnated, so my choice was easy! I painted a dark line of water just below the far shore.When executing a painting, it's always a good idea not to concentrate too much on one area but keep working all over the place. This unites the whole thing into becoming ONE PIECE instead of separate units. I brought my attention back to the foreground and decided to try to make the Kelp bed take shape, giving the painting some depth and uniting the distinct shoreline with the water. At this point I began to wonder about colour. I had been sticking to the reality of the blues and greens of our seascapes but at this point it didn't look very exciting. I was determined to "warm up" the painting so I cautiously added some warm clouds at the top and started to incorporate some of these colours into the rest of the painting. Adding the fishing boats to the scene gave it more life and depth. How much farther to go with the warm colours? Next Blog-----
