Creating height

Sea Stacks

7 x 10 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

I have noticed in several paintings from tops of hills or cliffs that creating the illusion of height is pretty difficult. In this painting, the sand is not nearly this yellow so it looks a little further away, but I have still not created the sense of standing on a bluff looking down quite a way. Part of it is the lack of objects on the beach. Part of it is the size of the sea stack, perhaps. This is something I would like to learn to do better. Any suggestions about paintings where this is done well would be appreciated.

The setting for this painting is the Oregon Coast. There are several places along the coast where these grand sentinels stand just off the shore. They are millions of years old, according to the geologists. Some are alone and some in small groups. All of them are quite majestic.

I will be working this weekend, so won't post again until Monday. Thanks for visiting.

Interesting colors

Shore Break

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

I have started doing a bit of research into the history of western painting. One of the things I have discovered is the similarity in pallets from the earliest cave paintings until well into the early middle ages. The predominance of umbers, gold, and blues is evident in the great animal drawings on the cave walls, the Egyption tomb paintings, the great Etruscan murals, and the early paintings of Giotto. The absence of most of the other colors we are used to seeing today give a wonderfully integrated feeling to these ancient works of art.

For today's painting, I decided to try and limit myself primarily to this pallett. I added the dark purple for the cliff to create a contrast. This painting is of a great shore break on the north shore of Moloka'i where the rocky heads create exciting water movement.

Color and Perspective

Yarrow

7 x 10 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

Today I decided to play with color and perspective some. I am still working on distant values. When I think the painting is finished, I step back, and discover the hill that is further away is much darker than the closer one. I think I solved that problem here. I also wanted to get a sense of distance in the water. That one is a little tougher because this was all deep water, except right near the beach of the second hill. I know deep water is darker than shallow water, so I had to work out relative values. I don't know why this is so difficult. I try and blame it on my pastels, but I am pretty sure it is me. I think I achieved what I was going for in this painting. After looking at this, I think I need some work on details. This, however, is something I need to do when I work on pieces I can take more time with. My one hour studio time in the mornings includes set up and clean up, and I still want to do at least one painting (some people refer to them as sketches) each day. One of these days, I may retire and devote much more time to my painting.

Sunrise on the water

Sunrise

7 x 10 soft pastels on Art Spectrum

Miki Willa

The sky and the ocean are blue. The grass is green. Clouds are white. But is that it? One of the best things about becoming an artist is developing a clearer vision of things. Before I started painting skies, I really didn't notice all the different blues in the sky. They depend on location, time of year, time of day, weather conditions. Clouds have so many colors sometimes, they just scream to be painted.

The ocean is another source of great colors. I grew up near the ocean in Southern California. I got used to the green blue of that water. Then I moved to the Pacific Northwest. The ocean there was often a deep steel gray/blue. The ocean surrounding Hawaii can be deep purple to light turquoise. The reefs make an amazing difference and pattern. What I have begun to notice is the color on the water at different times of day. I have also begun to notice that the "white" in the foam of a wave is rarely white at all and never a solid color.

In today's painting, I tried to represent my new way of seeing. I wanted to show all the shades of the foam. The pinks in the water, from the very deep pink in the distance to the lighter peach in the foreground are reflections of the wonderful colors at sunrise. I am pleased that the painting in my head is the same one I managed to put on the paper.