A Timed Study

A timed study was the order of the day. I gave myself one hour to paint a study on an 11X14 canvas board. The purpose of the exercise was to get myself loosened up a bit and concentrate on matching and mixing the correct color note. But also not to stress over it and mimick the conditions of painting on location plein air.

So, I put the palette knife aside, grabbed a roll of paper towels, squeezed out the paint (red, yellow, blue and white), grabbed my brushes, set the timer and quickly studied the shadow and light areas of the subject. The timer went off in an hour and I snapped this photo.



The background on this location--Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina. Pine Knoll Shores is an east-west running beach on the East Coast. I've been told it's the only truly running east-west beach on the East Coast. It's a barrier island off the mainland and is unique in that you get a sunrise on one part of the beach and the sunset on the other. I had done some studies while staying there and I pulled them out for reference while I did this study. I gave myself 30 more minutes to finish the study and here's the result.




All in all I was pleased with the results. When I convert this to a finished painting--meaning converting it to a larger canvas, I'll probably shrink the beach/ocean and condos and focus mainly on the clouds and sky. There was a thunderstorm brewing and actually when we finished our walk on this night, lightening was seen back over the mainland. The water on the beach is probably a little warmer than it should be, but not bad for spending only 1 hour and 30 minutes on it.