Abstract sea reflections

12*18 oil on stretched canvas August 2015

As Peter Rush mentioned in his book “..to paint seas and skies you have to be very interested in them. Not only just how they look, but why it is that they look and behave as they do.” Painting Skies and Seascapes By Peter Rush, Chapter 6, page 75

How does an artist capture the biggest challenge seascapes present – capturing the water movement? Everyone expresses their own feeling of the sea in their own way in different design and color. This time I was just following my inner self to depict a sea sunset reflecting in the water and the wet shore. I used several reference photographs trying to just select some pieces of information from them and not to rely heavily on the static nature of a picture.

I used my favorite color scheme of purple, blue and pink for the sky. I found that small amounts of paint work wonderfully for the sky and clouds depiction.

The sea color was a blue and a brown combination, which gave me the beautiful greenish value.Of course the sky reflects in the water, which added some purples and pinks to the sea, for which I used palette knife strokes.

Please have a look at the final result:

I must admit that playing with contrast values helps creating the sea movement. To build a convincing seascape of impact, light, atmosphere I just simplify the subject. This simplicity is the key ingredient not only in painting but in life as well 😉 Live easily !

Alina

ps

the painting is for sale at my etsy store:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/246762127/abstract-seascape-painting-of-sunset-at?ref=shop_home_active_1