Painting Sunshine on Canal Street

Our plein air painting group finally caught a break with the weather, so we met on Canal Street in New Smyrna Beach.
The sun was shining with nary a cloud in the sky.

If you know Canal Street, you are aware that it is popular with tourists and locals alike. It is lined with quaint shops, restaurants, and galleries. I love to hear the comments of people who stop to look. My favorite this day was "Oh! Fancy!".

This is where I set up. I started out enjoying the shade cast by the building across the street, but all too soon I found myself in full sun and beginning to burn.

I wear sunglasses to help me to not paint too dark in full sun. But even the shades couldn't eliminate all of the glare on this bright day.

Here is my "Got A Minute?" progress video. It even came in at just under a minute this week! Now who doesn't have a spare 57 seconds?

Back in the studio I took this picture of the finished painting.

"Canal Street" - oil - 8"x 10" - Leah Wiedemer - $280

Please leave a comment and tell me your thoughts. - thank you!

A Day at the Beach

Who doesn't love to go to the beach? The crashing waves, warm sunshine, salt air... It's great. I love to go and put my toes in the water, watch the shore birds, pick up shells and breath deeply of the fresh salt air.  It gives me a feeling of well being and contentment that I can get in few other places.

Painting the beach is a whole other ball game. Some artists manage to paint beautiful beach scenes with warm clouds and waves that feel wet. They make me feel the sunshine and smell the air. I've never been one of them. As a composition the beach seems a bit boring to me. So when I arrived at New Smyrna beach I decided to try to come up with a composition that would interest me and hopefully others.

I concentrated on the sea oats blowing in the breeze. This is the view I chose. As you can see it was a beautiful day.

Take a look at my (less than) one minute video of my plein air experience painting the beach.

Finished. -------------- I think. :)

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. I'm always interested in learning from you.