All posts in category Seascapes

Seaside Daisies

My location on Cape Cod

How perfect on a summer day to paint daisies growing beside the sea! Before the rush of summer at the beach, I spent a few quiet hours on the bayside of Cape Cod capturing this scene.

Daisies have long been one of my favorite flowers. There is something about their simplicity that speaks to me. In the language of flowers daisies symbolize innocence and purity. In Norse mythology the daisy is Freya’s sacred flower. She is the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. The daisy represents motherhood or new beginnings. It is appropriate that at the beginning of summer, I painted “Seaside Daisies”.

“Seaside Daisies”, pastel, 11×15

Daisies are a challenge to paint in such a way that they do not resemble the many flowers in crayon of our childhood. I tried to capture the clumps of flowers before me and the general sense of the scene. I will remember this peaceful and beautiful location as I stood at the edge of the changing sea. Before long, I heard the waves as the tide shifted from low to high and the daisies nodded in the breeze.

Technical Notes: Sennelier LaCarte pastel paper, Pastels by Terry Ludwig, Sennelier, Unison, Girault, and Conte pencils.

Lace, Lighthouse, & Links

Easel at Cape Cod Nat’l Seashore Highland Links, Truro, MA

Wildflowers in the windswept meadow in the rough of the links course by the Highland Light in Truro caught my eye. The Highland Links dates to 1892. Several artists were painting Cape Cod’s oldest lighthouse which dates to 1857 for the Light on Truro painting event. I chose to focus my attention on the natural beauty of the Cape Cod National Seashore, rather than the architecture of the lighthouse. A sliver of the blue ocean beyond the trees balanced the blue of wild chickory and Queen Anne’s Lace in the foreground. This scene beside the Highland Historical Museum is a reminder of a bygone era when the building was a turn of the century resort hotel on the Outer Cape.

I had a clear vision of the image that I wanted to capture in my painting. Soon I felt I had enough information to sign and frame the piece for an exhibit that afternoon at the Truro Library by the Addison Art Gallery called “Light On Truro”. The exhibit celebrates the Centennial of the National Parks and “Found Our Park!” which features art inspired by the Cape Cod National Seashore. “Queen Anne’s View” is available through the Addison Art Gallery.

Queen Anne’s View, pastel, 12×16

Technical Notes: Sennelier LaCarte pastel card with a variety of pastels by Rembrandt, Unison, Terry Ludwig, Girault, Sennelier, and Conte pastel pencil.

3 Comments

by lindabeachstudio on August 5, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in Art, Art Materials, Art Show, Cape Cod, Landscape, Pastel, Pastel Painting, Seascapes, Uncategorized

Tagged Art, Art Materials, Cape Cod, Cape Cod National Seashore, Highland Light, MA, National Parks, New England painting, painting, pastel painting, Queen Anne's Lace, Truro, Wildflowers

Posted by lindabeachstudio on August 5, 2016

https://lindabeachstudio.wordpress.com/2016/08/05/lace-lighthouse-links/

By the Sea

Easel at Mayo Beach for After Hopper in Wellfleet, MA

The Paint Out for Addison Art Gallery’s “After Hopper” in Wellfleet, MA was last Saturday. The event celebrates the artist Edward Hopper and continues the tradition of plein air painting iconic images of Cape Cod. I chose Mayo Beach and the oil house behind what was once the Mayo’s Beach Lighthouse on Kendrick Avenue. The pink and white beach roses which surround the simple painted brick outbuilding were in full bloom. Artists had the morning to paint and then deliver the finished work to the Wellfleet Public Library for an afternoon reception. This is often called a Quick Draw at other plein air paint outs.

Thumbnail sketch for “By the Sea”

I planned my composition with a quick thumbnail sketch. With only a few hours to work from concept to completion, I thought the simple building that originally held the oil for the lighthouse would make for good painting that could feature the simple beauty of the Cape scene. The race against the clock is helpful to push me to capture the essence of the view and not get caught up in overworking a painting. I used the broken split rail fence that was surrounded by the roses as a directional element to draw the viewer into the focal point.

I finished the pastel, framed it, and delivered it to the Wellfleet library to be hung for the reception to be held from 4 to 6 pm. Soon I was rewarded for my morning’s work, when a new collector chose “By the Sea” for a gift for his wife. I have memories of a beautiful day by the sea.

“By the Sea”, pastel, 11×14, private collection

3 Comments

by lindabeachstudio on June 17, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in Art, Beach painting, Cape Cod, Landscape, Pastel, Pastel Painting, Plein air, Seascapes, Uncategorized

Tagged Art, Beach painting, Beach roses, Cape Cod, Edward Hopper, landscape painting, Lighthouse, New England painting, Paint Out, pastel painting, Plein air

Posted by lindabeachstudio on June 17, 2016

https://lindabeachstudio.wordpress.com/2016/06/17/by-the-sea/

On the Coast

“Sea Thrift”, pastel, 8,5×11

I spent a week on the Oregon Coast at Depoe Bay watching the surf, eating seafood, and exploring the area with the Beach family. I began this pastel on the coast, but I finished this at home since I didn’t have many of sticks that I needed for the rocks. The motion of the surf on the cliff below was a constant source of entertainment. I also was attracted to the profusion of Sea Thrift which was in bloom. There were many other pastels used in this piece, but I have shown some of the assorted pastels and pastel pencils used. To get the fine mist of the sea spray, I used a paste of pastel mixed with alcohol and applied it by flicking the bristles of the toothbrush. The sanded paper was Wallis, 9×12 with a assortment of pastels by Terry Ludwig, Unison , Rembrandt, Sennelier, and pastel pencils by Conte and Stabil0.

Pastels for Sea Thrift

3 Comments

by lindabeachstudio on May 6, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in Art Materials, Marine painting, Painting, Pastel, Seascapes, Travel

Tagged Art, landscape painting, Oregon coast, pastel painting, Wildflowers

Posted by lindabeachstudio on May 6, 2016

https://lindabeachstudio.wordpress.com/2016/05/06/on-the-coast/

At the Elbow

The latest painting on my easel is “Lighthouse Beach” in Chatham. When New Englanders raise a left arm and point to their elbow, they are referring to the town of Chatham, MA. Cape Cod which was formed by the ice age is shaped like an arm at a right angle and there sits Chatham with a quaint downtown, picturesque lighthouses, and barrier beaches. The beach is one of the outstanding beaches on the Cape at the base of Chatham Lighthouse.

“Lighthouse Beach”, pastel, 12×24

To access the beach one must go down a flight of stairs and the scene that I captured is looking to the North across the rose hips of the beach roses and beach grasses to the water beyond. The diagonal design that this emphasized seems to add something different from the standard horizontal prospective of sky, water, and land that most beach scenes offer. Lighthouse Beach seems to go on as far as the eye can see and I hoped that the painting captures this feeling.

Technical information : I worked on mounted U art #400 to archival foam board. Pastels for the sky, water, and sand were mostly Unisons. Grasses and foreground foliage were mostly Rembrandt, Terry Ludwig, Sennelier, and NuPastels.

Painting this in the studio after a summer on the Cape was a good way to make the summer last a little longer.

Linda Beach

All posts in category Seascapes

Seaside Daisies

Lace, Lighthouse, & Links

By the Sea

On the Coast

At the Elbow

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