Painting the sea beach

by Tissa Hewavitharane

Ever since I loved to paint outdoor scenes my favourite subject was the sea. The coastline is gifted with long sandy beaches and a rich deep blue sea near my home Mt.Lavinia. The waters of the ocean hit the rocks and provide the music. This peaceful area along the coast line is strewn with restful bays and reefs emerging and submerging with the waves.

Coral islets bask in the sun, and brown-green coconut groves stretch out into the endless distance where the sky meets the ocean waves. The morning winds blow gently on the ancient outriggers which meet the rigours of the sea in the trusting hands of the seasoned fisherman.

The day is transformed in the evening when the fishing boats start coming home. The boats are heavy with the day's catch of different fish. The fish-mongers are impatient, vying with each other to dispose of the catch. They are capable of breathing life into the dead fish to clinch the deal with the waiting buyers.

Fishing boats

When painting a beach scene with numerous subjects such as fishermen casting the net, fishing boats back home, fishing with Maha-dela (large net) and young bellies with colourful cloth and jacket closely fitting the shapely figure with large baskets waiting to buy their portion of fish have the effect of intensifying each other.

This creates a luminous glow that spells out a beautiful, vibrant beach scene. When composing a evening beach scene, remember that either the bright, warm areas should dominate, or the cool dark shadow areas. If there is an even spread of lights and darks the effect of bright sunshine will be lost.

Everything the sun hits becomes warmer and more intense in colour, whereas objects in shadow are correspondingly cool. Shadows are a marvellous device for conveying an impression of bright sunshine.

The sky at sunset takes on a radiant glow which even the brightest pigment colours can never hope to match.

The artist, therefore, should know how to use his skill to create the illusion of radiant light in his painting.

One way to do this is by including warm and cool colours in the sky, because a warm colour always appears, warmer and brighter when placed next to a cool colour.

When painting the sunset, use pure clear transparent pigments which allow light to reflect off the paper and up through the colours, thus increasing the impression of light and luminosity. Adjacent warm and cool colours have the effect of intensifying each other, and this creates a luminous glow that spells the sunset.

Selection of colours in a painting is dictated by the method of working. Colour can be realistic, adhering to nature as closely as possible, or it can be subjective, with the artist using colour he feels is right at that time. Between these two extremes exists a wide range of possibilities, depending on the purpose of the artist.

Interest

Most amateurs fail in painting beach scenes because of poor composition. Always compose your scenes with a simple foreground which make it easy for the viewer to enter your picture and be led to the centre of interest. Do not clutter your beaches with too much details.

Keep them very simple and but on the paint with authority and leave them fresh transparent. A few simple figures on a beach give life and scale but be careful where you place them and keep your strokes to a minimum, with no details.

In the painting I have done here, there are no details on the figures. Notice the fisherman at a distance pulling the net and how the dark tones accentuate the brightness of the sky in the painting. The two women talking to each other bring life to the painting by aiming to capture the gesture and shape.

Technique

It is difficult to use the technique of painting on a wet background or just the technique of painting on a dry back ground in any given painting. Usually they are used simultaneously to achieve the desired effect of each. The wet background allows effects of the atmosphere, vague shades merging areas, gradations and the merging and blending of colour.

The wetness is controlled with absorbent paper, with a sponge or dry brush or by the natural evaporation of the water. The drying time for each coat of paint vans wait. Therefore, for the paper to dry a little. If you paint while the paper is still wet the colour will run and blend completely while the back is still wet, but not soaked, a darker colour could be added.

With a dryer base, the form of the brush stroke can be controlled much better. Controlling the flow of the paint on the paper improves as the paper dries. It is important to remember that you cannot paint light tones over dark tones with watercolour paints. It must always be the other way around.