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