Beach Scene

"Beach Scene," watercolor on 12 x 9 140 lb paper

I wanted to create an abstract landscape.  

My main focus in this painting was sky- I wanted to give the sky a great deal of depth and interest.  I used wet-on-wet for an underpainting, interweaving blues, violets, reds, oranges and yellows.  After this layer dried, I went over it in two layers of dark blue, then added table salt, as well as rock salt to allow the broken colors to shine through.

For the ocean, I mixed greens and blues, painting wet-on wet to give the impression of waves.

The hill was originally a cadmium lemon.  This created imbalance in the painting, so I neutralized the hill and also gave it more interest by layering a deep blue-violet over the yellow.  I added more salt to give the sand some texture.

Overall, I'm happy with how the painting turned out.  Next time I work a beach scene, I might abstract it further by using cleaner geometric shapes and a simpler color scheme.