Diminishing Repeats

Between Eastpoint and Carabelle, Florida, the road hugs the Gulf for almost 15 miles.  About halfway, there is a stretch of beach that has the remnants of storm ravaged cypress trees and scrub pines.  Coming home after a day of photographing the waterfront in Carabelle, I again spotted the trunks which were dark silhouettes against an orange sunset.  Their shapes were so interesting that I just had to paint them.

Yesterday you saw the planning stage.  This morning, I took a deep breath and splashed away.  Mixing up  big puddles for the larger shapes enabled me to cover the sky and beach quickly so that I could drop colors into the "mother color".  After this was dry, it was simply a matter of adding the darks. 

This painting also illustrates the concept of "diminishing repeats."  By repeating the shapes of the stumps in ever decreasing size, you need less and less texture and fewer details.  The eye supplies the distant stumps with the details that appear in the foreground shapes.

Since the next few days look rainy and cold, I think I'll try a couple more of this motif.  I might try a more neutral palette next time.