Pina Colada on the Beach, Dominican Republic

Here is a painting I did on a recent trip down to the Dominican Republic at one of those all inclusive (including the mosquitos) resorts. The sand was white the water was aqua and the pina colada was cold. In the scene, two people are stretched out on chairs watching a catamaran go by. In the foreground a leafy tree casts shadows onto the beach. The two pink dots on the right were kind of an accident but I liked the way they looked, kind of like flowers?

Capturing the water was by far the most challenging aspect of the trip (besides the difficulty in getting out of the chair to go to the bar, and the annoying habit of some of the other vacationers to reserve pool-side chairs with their towels). The sea has several distinct phases...near the beach the water is tinted by the cream-coloured sand, and also reflects some of the cool blue sky, creating a puple tone. This fades into a yellow-green with blue highlights, and then becomes a cooler blue closer to the horizon. All over there are purple highlights reflecting from the sky, and bleach-white waves rolling in. I tried to keep it simple by excluding a lot of the waves, and the frothy ripples that come in near the sand, and also not painting a lot of the relfected light from the sky which created difficult highlights. Of all the Dominican paintings this one perhaps captures the sea the best, I used a lot of cobalt blue and cerulean blue, which give that textured effect that simulates ripples and reflections.

5x7" cold press, 2009