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