Heavy Weather Marine Oil Pastel
The inspiration for this marine oil pastel is Winter Island in Salem, Massachusetts. As can be seen the photograph shown here was taken of the same view. By and large the photograph was used for reference, However, much of the painting was done from memory and imagination. This coastal scene takes place on a cloudy day. Bits of blue sky peak out from behind swirling puffy clouds. The day was filled with eerie foreboding as the wind whipped across the water.
Yet the actual oil pastel takes this mood further than the photograph. Here we see white capped waves racing in towards the shore. A consequence of these wild waves is that the sailboats are tossed about at their moorings. While clouds are whipped along by high winds. Indeed they bounce and dance in the sky. In addition water interweaves with the multicolored rock formations of orange, gray and blue. An effective sense of movement is created. The rock shapes form patterns that look like inlaid semiprecious jewels along the shore.
Dynamic Oil Pastel Painting Technique
The artist’s love of the ocean is evident in the careful rendering of this piece. Altogether this Impressionist painting is rhythmic and full of energy. In effect clouds, shoreline, water and rocks all appear to move as they do in real life. Truly this marine painting is not a static picture frozen in time. But instead a moving living thing like the world around us. After all, all things are relative. In our universe everything works together.
The painting is broken out into 4 distinct sections. Including the rocks, ocean, distant shore and sky. With this in mind, each section received a different treatment. This was based on the properties of the elements contained within. The sky received washes of turpentine to give it a softer effect. Moreover the pigment was blended in many layers to create the appearance of the movement of water underneath the surface of the waves. Some of the rock formations some meld with the water. While those in the foreground to the right have been left partially unfinished and blend into the paper itself. The background shore line curves and mimics the rhythm of the waves.
About This Marine Oil Pastel Painting
Title: Heavy Weather
Medium: Oil pastels on Yes All Media Canvas Panel
Size: 20″ x 16″
Framed Size: 21-1/4″ x 17-1/4″
More Marine Paintings
Winter Island Lighthouse, seascape with lighthouse oil pastel painting