This newest oil and cold wax painting was loosely inspired by the photo above that I took while on one of my visits to Mexico. I have had it in my mind to paint this, or something inspired by it since I took the photo in 2016. As you’ll see the biggest piece of inspiration was the cool blue water.
This piece is my largest completed oil and cold wax piece to date. At 30×36 I wasn’t quite sure how to get this canvas covered efficiently so I decided to start with a brayer (pictured below) I didn’t care too much about how the piece looked at this point, I was mostly focused on getting the board covered with a layer of paint.
Once the majority of the board is covered with a layer of paint I begin focusing on creating textures and composition. I begin using palette knives to get different marks with the pink paint.
I then move onto the different blue values to create some depth, still using palette knifes to create different and interesting marks and textures. I usually like to incorporate small bits of color both above and below the “horizon” to create a more unified look throughout the piece.
At this point I switch back and forth from the brayer to palette knife. I used the brayer to add the violet colors to the sky and foreground. But I use mostly palette knife to add the very dark, almost black color in the foreground, horizon and top edge of the painting. I could tell the piece was starting to feel closer to being done but the more I looked at it the more I realized how bright and distracting the pink in the sky was.
So I decided to tone it down by using the brayer again to add bits of blue back into the sky. It was the perfect way to tone down the brightness of the pink. I also added a few more touches of the very dark value and decided it was finished!!
I wanted to include this last photo because it more accurately shows the scale of the painting!