Anastasia Dune Escape

Anastasia Dune Escape

Line and Wash on paper, 7x10 inches

I often return to some of my favorite photographs because they bring back memories that I can capture in a painting.  The photographs that inspired this painting were taken on a plein air outing to Anastasia State Park.  The tallest dunes separate a broad expanse of marsh and low dunes from the beach itself, and those dunes often look like a wall holding me back.  When I “escape” through the dunes by the hidden path, I come out on the broad expanse flat beach, ocean, and endless horizon.

As I look again at these beautiful dunes, I ask myself what adventures wait for me when I escape the dunes to the beach beyond.

This sense of expectation is what I wanted to capture with the solid growth of new sea oats and the suggestion of a white, sandy, path through the dunes.

Windy

Ink and watercolor wash, 7x10

I am trying out a new Mixed Media pad from Artist Loft. I thought it would be a good surface for line and wash and a good size for plein air sketches.  No wet-in-wet, so not a complete test.

Wind Rising

Wind Rising

Watercolor and Ink on Paper, 4x6

As the autumn storms move in, the dunes fall into darker colors, the wind rises, and the pounding waves drive the birds into the air seeking shelter inland.

On-Shore Breeze

On Shore Wind

Ink and Watercolor with Pastel on Cotton WC Paper, 5x7

In the mid afternoon when the on-shore breeze takes over, the sea oats hold their heads and bend with the wind.  A few seagull sail by waiting for the wind to drop and tide to go out.

Pastel saved this small painting - when the watercolor gets out of hand, I call in the cavalry - pastel cavalry, that is.

Praise in the Dunes

Praise in the Dunes

Ink and Wash, 5x7 on Paper

The wind constantly moves and changes the dunes, and as it does, it carves dynamic breaks and banks in the sand as the sea oats and shrubbery holds back the top of the dune.

Unsettled Weather

Unsettled Weather

Pastel 6x9 on Sanded Paper

When the weather changes, the beach takes on its own special wild beauty. As the sun begins to set and the wind picks up, a solitary couple has the beach and the weather to themselves. 

Sunny Morning

Sunny Morning

Mixed Media - Gouache and Pastel 5x7

This small study is another exercise in mixing pastel and gouache.  I like the wash and tone I can get with gouache as well as the precise details while the pastel is at hand to add sparkle and to tie the painting together.

I selected this view of the ocean and beach through a gap in the dunes to emphasize clear brightness of the morning, the brisk sea breeze, the building waves, and the coming heat of the day.

Stormy Day

Stormy Day

Mixed Media on watercolor paper 5x7.

My objective was to capture the dunes and sea oats on a cloudy day when the colors and values are somewhat muted. I started out as an link and watercolor wash but the colors and values did not work. I tried to fix it with gouache and created some really flat, dull, lifeless forms. Pastel to the rescue! The result in truly mixed media accomplished what I wanted.

Sand Fence 1

Ink and Watercolor wash - 5x7

As the storms of summer roll past the dunes, the sand fence stands faithfully in his place surrounded by his companions the sea oats.  Together, they slow the inevitable changes in the shifting and drifting sand.

Dune Sweep

Ink and Watercolor wash, 7x5

The constant wind sweeps the dunes moving the sand ever and ever on, but the lines of sea oats hold the dune in place.  Their sculpted edges and shifting shadows are an ever-changing work of art.
To purchase this painting, click here.

Palm 2

Palm 2

Line and Watercolor Wash

The palms that grow on the back side of the beach dunes seem to never rest as the sea breeze wafts and waves their fronds.  I use the pen with it's fine line for the details I need while I use the watercolor wash to add the abstraction that gives the painting life.

Palm 1

Palm 1 

Line and Watercolor Wash

This view of a palm on the beach dunes with sea oats is the foundation for an expression of the feeling of chill and the smell of the salt air on a windy, overcast day.  The pen with it's fine line gives me the details I need while the watercolor wash leads to the abstraction that gives the painting life.

Circumstances have kept me from my studio and from pastels.  In the interim, I have been painting with ink and watercolor washes.  

Autumn Dunes

Pastel, 12x18 on UArt

In the autumn, the muhly grass seems to blaze with pink fire between the dunes and the sea oats are taking on their winter tones of burnished bronze.  The late sun paints the path to the beach with light and brushes the tops of the grass with touches of flame.

First Rays

Pastel, 9x12 on UArt

The idea and inspiration of this piece was the way that early morning sun kisses the tops of the dunes and paints the tallest grass with golden light. The air and the sand are still calm and cool, blue, and quiet, but the sun makes the promise of a bright, hot day ahead.

This painting is a rework of a previous piece, "Path 6."  I liked the first painting, but it had no clear central idea or focus, so I started reworking it.  I raised the horizon because everyone knows where the beach and surf lie.  I reworked the composition and cranked up the values and contrasts in color and temperature.  The more I worked it the less remained of the original painting - in fact the sky is the only element that seems to have survived, and that got a little more color.

Hot Sand, Path 6

Pastel, 9x12 on UArt

This painting is number six in my "path project," but it has been completely reworked under a new name "First Rays."  

I'm leaving this photo up for reference, but this painting no longer exists.

Dune Morning

Pastel, 12x16

This old path between the dunes leading to the beach has always inspired me.  The softness of the warm sand, the gentle green of the shrubs and sea oats, the beach all to yourself, and endless horizon over the water - what more would you want?

You can purchase this painting by clicking here. "Dune Morning"

Afternoon Oats

Digital Tablet Painting

Printed on W/C Paper, 5x7 signed and numbered - ArtRage

On St. Augustine Beach, there is a shallow track, the remains of an abandoned trail that stretches away from the beach into the dunes.  The trail is lined with old, weathered clumps of sea oats that stand in defiance of the elements and hold their golden spikes to the sky.

Bright Oats 1

Digital Tablet Painting

Printed on W/C Paper, 5x7 signed and numbered - ArtRage

As I look across the small dunes and open sand toward the beach, the sparse, open clumps of sea oats make their own statements about the sunlight, the wind, and the heat of summer. It is this expression from St. Augustine Beach / Anastasia Island that I tried to capture.

Sea Purslane and Oats

Digital Tablet Painting

Printed on W/C Paper, 5x7 signed and numbered; ArtRage

The sea purslane and sea oats often grow together, and they strengthen each other as their roots hold the dunes against the wind. It is good when friends work together.

Dunes and Oats 2

Digital Tablet Painting

Printed on W/C Paper, 5x7 signed and numbered edition of 20.

View of the oats bending in the sea breeze.  I have created these paintings so the result will have some of the appearance and freshness of a block print.  

These images are created stroke-by-stroke in the same manner as I would do a painting in watercolor or oil.