Crystal Cove Sunset

In January we went to SoCal for a week, staying just above Crystal Cove State Park where we would take long runs and walks through the canyons and along the beach.   One evening we were walking the beach just as the sun was setting and I got this shot.  The scene reminded me of a Gerard Richter’s Seascape from 1998 which we saw at the SF MOMA retrospective and have a print of hanging in our stairwell.

Acrylic made getting this the way I wanted it very hard, I used a lot of retarder to try and allow better mixing of the paint and softening of the edges but it was still drying way to fast.   I may have to revisit this in oils on a larger scale later.   Still, it seemed like a good painting to end the series on since it was one of our first trips of the year.

Done!  This is definitely the most I’ve painted in a decade.  The last show I had work in was in 2003 so ten years ago.  I don’t think I’ve done 30 pieces in that entire decade so this definitely got me back into painting in a big way.   I do plan on doing some more larger oils once this show has wrapped up.  I think I’ll stay away from acrylics until next year though.