Morning Shadows

This painting is the first from a series of reference photographs from my local beach where I take my 3 year old son to everyday. I use reference photographs to capture an idea. I will take several photographs to patch together and use as a start. The drawing and composition are all worked out with graphite and then solidified with a wash. I will do several more washed for underpaintings determining a value structure and building the surface with perceived depths. I am based in realism, but what I want mostly is to make the viewer psychologically feel like they are in the actual ocean. It's a reason why I don't show a horizon line or sky, and rarely a waterless surface. This painting depicts the moment the wave has churned up the loose sand. That is where the moment that this painting is delivering. My intent is to slow the moment down so it can live on. When we think of a place, a person, or a thing, we are thinking of our memories more so than the actual person, place or thing. As memories those things can live on long after they've passed and in that way, they are immortal. I always wanted to live in an endless summer and this is the manifestation of that. Using the beach where I take my son to for this painting and several more is also my way of hoping to make these moments with him last just a little bit longer.