Ocean Light

I took a trip to Ireland in 2019, capturing on camera a great number of natural scenes to paint.  Upon returning to Los Angeles, my priority was editing those photos to look like the actual memories of that mystical isle of green.  Once I had gotten through half of them, I had to stop and begin painting this beautiful scene.  The tide was out and the light of the setting sun barely squeezed through a massive blockade of dark grey clouds.  It resembled moonlight.  The photograph didn’t really capture the light as I remembered it, so my task was to burrow into those many recent memories of a glorious land.  While painting I had to close my eyes and remember how metallic the water looked as the remnants of golden-white swept across just the surface of the foam.  I am thankful I worked this out while my visual impressions were still strong. I knew just when to stop painting, once that light had been recorded on the canvas.