When You're Hot, You're Hot

 Making a Painting with the Weather and the Tides

  Everything is a subject; the subject is yourself. It is within yourself that you must look and not around you... The greatest happiness is to reveal it to others, to study oneself, to paint oneself continually in [one's] work. (Eugene Delacroix)

  This week summer hit full force and it was so hot! I am a spring and fall outdoor painter, I am not sure what to do with the heat of summer and the cold of winter. This year I have been walking on the beach several times a week and I kept passing the most original older cottage along the Mile Stretch Road. I really like this place from the long, wide beach of Biddeford Pool, looking back and up over the granite retaining wall. I've only done a quick sketch there a couple of years ago.

  The tide has to be almost all the way out to get this view. It has to be morning light. So I have about 2 hours before and after low tide to paint. This week it was low tide during the morning and hotter than a chili pepper in the Sahara so I decided to take the plunge and do the painting!   
  Here is the results of the first morning session, setting up the idea and getting some paint on the canvas, which is a 16" square linen. It's about as big as I can go on my EasyL easel. 
  I had visitors all morning. A couple mentioned that they rarely see artists painting in Biddeford Pool. "There's no place to park if you aren't a resident" I said.  I met the owner of this cottage, and lots of passers by. And me with no business cards!

This is my set up at the beach on the left here, just starting on my second morning. I have a lot of work to do below the house on the rocks and stairs, and I want to rework the way the water flows over the sand below. 

Check out the plastic lids I used to keep my easel legs from sinking slooooowly into the sand....







  And the painting below is now pretty far along.  I'm going to let it dry some and then do whatever makes sense to pull things together a bit more, but it will likely be heading to my show at the Barn Gallery in August.  It was a great couple of days working at the beach in my own town, I met some good people, listened to some birds, and saw a harbor seal pup rescued by marine biologists. On the downside, my new car was the target of several careless seagulls!

"The Original" • Oil on Linen • 16" x 16"

 P.S. Check out my friend Elizabeth's easel set up on a recent painting trip to Rockland:

  I like the double wide palette. The red and blue wings are the palette lids, she's got a flag there all ready for the 4th of July!