Heating up the beach

Funny how the eye is attracted to bright colours, isn't it?  No wonder they're used so much in advertising, the brighter, the better.  Its often the case in paintings.  It may be just a little shot of colour or something very bold that pulls in the viewer.  No doubt there is some science behind it or intuitive rationale that preys on our inner primitive being.

I am no different and while I had a couple of spare hours when I was in Winnipeg, I hunted down an art supply store that I'd been in previously.  They didn't have what I was looking for, but I was drawn to a carousel of Jack Richeson soft  pastels.  Stubby handmade sticks of pigment in every colour, just waiting to be bought.  I'm not a frequent user of pastels, and not as proficient in them as I would like, but enjoy their immediacy - and the feeling of getting hands dirty while producing.  No, I'm not a worrier of pastel dust or dusty coloured clothes, its all part of the experience of creating.

One of the colours I was drawn to was this luscious orange.  It was so vibrant, like a fresh orange had been condensed into a stick.  Another shot of colour in red, a few neutrals and an assortment of my 'water' colours came home with me.  Tonight I played around with a twilight image of a beach.  It let the pastel flow like paint without much blending and turned the beach into a firey glow of orange and red.  No realism in colour, or is there.  Is the realism in shape and value or in colour?  Contrasts and values set the shape and show the eye where to look.  If that is correct, everything else is believable.

This piece is about 6" x 10" on Canson paper. I'll take a better photo in natural light tomorrow that should give a better idea of the intensity of the colours.

* Image updated 2.6.12