Laguna Beach revisited

There is benefit from revisiting a subject a number of times.  Each time you see something new and learn something new about it.

A couple of years ago, I did a pastel of this stone arch on Laguna Beach, and recently did a little retouching on it til its at the point where I want it to be now.  I wanted the colours to be more intense and to reflect the golds against the blue sky. Of course the current image doesn't do justice to the blues or the golds, but I'll try again tomorrow for a better image in daylight.

I had completed a small piece as a warm up before putting it onto a full sized sheet.  I have also tried this in oils and I am considering another large piece using this reference and charcoal as the medium.

8 x 10 oils

This sandy rock holds a series of shades of ochre, red, violet and lovely seams and planes of blues that overlay it.  The glimpse of the beach and wet sand through the arch tempt the viewer to walk through.  The ongoing challenge is to make the piece appear solid, to create the planes and recreate the colour values. Compositionally, its not good with the focal point in the centre, but the exercise in colour and value creation always appeals to me.