La Reunion, Coral

On the beach at L'Hermitage there were many large chunks of coral which may have washed up or may have been carried up by the beach folk who use them to weigh down their towels in the island wind. This was a sizeable chunk of coral, larger than your two hands and weighing a kilo or so. The patterns and colours of the coral were really inspiring, it was a bit of a challenge to pull it off though.

Even though this is the simplest subject matter I painted on the trip, it was probably one of the most technically difficult. I began with the underlying colours and shadows, a complex mixture of pinks, ambers, peaches, and warm lilac tones. As the painting dried I 'spiked' the shadow areas with darker purples and browns, by spiked I mean that I put colour into a semi-dry layer resulting in a very smooth changing of the tone. Even though the coral itself was rock hard, it appeared very 'cottony' and the light reflected off it in an almost halo-like way...the key to capturing this feeling was to keep everything smooth and a little fuzzy instead of having the elements too sharp an focused....examine the edges of the coral and you see a very undefined line. The details of the coral structure were added after the underpainting was nearly dry, they were kept fairly muted so as to maintain the illusion of a delicate coral.

5x7" cold press 2011

L'Hermitage Beach

Also called the 'lagoon', this beach situated on the west coast of Ile de la Reunion is protected by a natural coral reef that blocks the waves from the indian ocean, and more importantly prevents the sharks from entering. In the painting you can see the white foam of the waves crashing on the reef about 2/3 the way up the sea, the actual distance is about 30-40 meters from the shore. Within the lagoon there are many little fish and other creepy crawlies that are mostly harmless, and the water ranges from 25-28 C.

This was the first (and only) painting from the trip done on this format, the size ratio is over 2:1 wide. We had already been to the beach several times and I knew I wanted to paint this scene, the long beach with the repeating trees in the foreground, so on the last day I cut a larger piece down to this size especially for the scene. The actual painting went very quick, I started with the water, completing it pretty much as you see in the painting, I then took the painting out into the sun (I was sitting in the shade at the time) to allow it to dry fully before putting on the darker trees in the foreground. It was then a matter of putting down the sand and the shadows, and finally adding the details (pine cones on the ground and the wispy pine needles and branches at the top). Now that I look at the photo of the painting I really like the sparkling white highlights on the waves in the distance. This was the last painting I did on the Feb La Reunion trip.


15x6" cold press 2011

Morning Clouds, La Reunion

The morning clouds were rolling into ile de la Reunion, illuminated by the pink light of the rising sun they reached high into the sky billowing above the topaz sea. Gee, this painting blog is turning into a cheesy poetry blog all of a sudden. This is the view from the back patio of the apartment, not a bad place to have a coffee in the morning. Most of the day it is sunny here or partly cloudy, although sometimes in the afternoon the clouds roll over and there can be flash rain storms. So far we have been lucky with the weather though, as this painting suggests.

I put most of the effort into painting the clouds... to begin I put down the blue sky roughly outlining the white clouds, then used a damp brush to soften the edges of the clouds to give them the cottony-appearance. When partly dry I dropped in the golden pink followed by darker shadow tones which are a mix of cerulean blue and rose matter genuine with a touch of lemon yellow. When these layers were mostly dry I put on the thin dark clouds over top, and by using lifting techniques created the thin white clouds that streak across the top. The humidity here on top of the mountain is actually quite low, so the paint dried fast enough to make this complex multi-layer approach. If the humidy is high you need to think of a simpler strategy.

5x7" cold press 2011

Reunion, view down the road, France

This is a painting just completed from the Ile de la Reunion, a small French island in the Indian ocean. The view is just down the road from the supermarket, believe it or not this is more or less the view from the supermarket.  The scene was done from atop la Montagne, the inactive volcanic mountain on the north part of the island adjacent to the city of St. Denis. The ocean provides most of the background for the picture, with only a thin strip of sky at the top.

I have had a couple of chances to paint this type of water... in Mexico and Domincan, and way back during my Europe trip. The colour is very tricky to get right, and in fact the exact colour is a mixture of different blues and greens with purple mixed in. I used a strong base of french ultramarine (fitting mais oui?) with some viridian and rose matter genuine. Where it gets faded in the background, the water is mostly the blues and reds with some cerulian mixed in. I work fast making sure the different colour washes blend together. By allowing the brush strokes to not fully combine in places you can create the wave effects. Alternatively you can lift the paint to create waves. I used both techniques here to create the white caps.

5 x 8" cold press 2011