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Here is a piece that began on location (plein air) in Laguna Beach during a fog covered day.  Actually it was the last day of fog after experiencing these heavy marine layers for about 10 days on the southern California coast.   I was feeling the strain of not being able to paint any sunny scenes, so I decided I needed to embrace the fog and paint it.   This was after a day of driving far enough inland to the wilderness and trying to paint in a secluded canyon.  Only I got bit by a swarm of horse flies, that didn`t work for painting.  

I have painted this scene of the Laguna Hotel several times during very sunny days, it was good for me to paint a different interpretation.  What I learned is that the value scale is narrow on lower light days, also most of the colors you see are neutralized by lack of sunrays.  The only pure colors were the blue and yellow umbrellas near the hotel and main beach kid's area.  To authentically portray the damp and cold atmosphere, I needed to keep my color notes in the mid range to lighter values.  To give this painting some added interest, I did apply some pastel colors to the fog and the shoreline wash.  The temperature was pretty chilly, although the weekenders visiting from out of town still wanted to walk along the shore.  I felt a romanticism in the air as I observed couples and families taking strolls.  The dimmed light and heavy fog hovering over the Laguna canyon in the distance really made it feel like fall and doing all the things to stay warm.  I smelled firewood burning in the air, I wanted a hot chocolate all of the sudden.  I stayed long enough to block in the correct colors and shapes on the linen panel and packed up when it became too dark.  You can see in the images below how quickly the day turned to night when the city lights appeared.  I later worked on the piece in my studio to give it a new life, a few figures on the beach and later added an impasto affect with thick paint over the earlier thin.  I began to make this painting evolve into my artistic and emotional feelings of fog, fall, people and Laguna, all embraced in the moment.  

The above image is how it looked when I quit.

Within moments, the above image shows the Laguna Beach city lights appearing all over.  It was magical.   The image below is the large size of the final piece.  There is so much thick paint in the foreground waters it will take a few weeks to dry.

It is SOLD.

I painted this iconic Laguna Beach scene from Heisler Park in front of the Las Brisas Restaurant on Friday, October 7, 2011.  The afternoon light was filtering through an ultra fine marine veil that made this appear as if you were looking at it after waking up from a dream.   I thought this was too beautiful to be real and I would soon awake. 

After sketching this scene in oil back in June, I had a good composition idea already mapped out on this linen panel.  I sanded down the first oil sketch and went right into painting this present scene on a sunny, ocean atmospheric day in October.   The way the ocean curved towards the Laguna Hotel was a lead in to the focal point which is the hotel.  All the strands of seaweed or kelp also gave a linear directional point towards the focal point.  So did the line of the green wave rolling inwards give  a directional line. The Laguna mountains behind provided a perfect stage backdrop in it`s multiple colors of greens, grays and blues.  For artistic reasons I added a muted alizaron crimson to compliment and balance the greens.  The trees in the city of Laguna Beach hugged the architecture.  All the buildings on the coast proved to be too much detail and distraction from the hotel, so I faded them out towards the sounthern coastline.   The expanse of the ocean waters moving in with the tides was a pleasure to capture.  The direction of my brushstrokes does give a movement and authentic feel of the ocean.   I purposely did not make this an intensely color saturated work of art, the distance of the hotel needed to be kept at a believable scale and color values to provide atmospheric perspective.  Because that area was the focal point, I did not make the ocean waters too blue or green to distract from the hotel, the ocean is a large part of this painting and I kept the color tones softer to add to the dreamy feeling.

This was sold on the day I painted it to a wonderful couple visiting from Texas.   Thank-you Vivian and Marty!

Below are images from the day I paintined it.  I did add a wee bit more brushwork back at the home studio to give it a cohesiveness and complete it. 

I will be going back to this location to paint it again for another couple who were visiting from out of town and wanted a painting like this with a little difference.  If I am to paint a scene again, I always make it unique.   That is the way of the creative artist, we discover new ways to interpret our subject.

I painted this jewel back in May of this year.  I saw that it needed a story just recently and some additional images, so here you are.  I really think I love to write.  The story of why I painted it is at the bottom.  I like to show images of my process too; like where I painted it to give you a sense of place and atmosphere.  Crystal Cove beckons me to paint it throughout the year.  It was a gorgeous day in May, warm and sunny, crisp light and gentle breezes.  I set up camp here for two days, well not actually a camp overnight, I just packed my art supplies and a picnic and stayed each day until sunset, producing four paintings en plein air.   Life is so enjoyable on days like those!

The painting was sold to a collector of mine. 

Below is an image of the day I painted this on location.  It is not complete here, I took it home to finish it. 

Below is an image of how I sketched this in first in burnt red oil wash.  The drawing of a complicated composition like this makes me feel less nervous about painting it in with color afterwards.  

The reason I chose to paint this scene is that I am very fond of this marine preservation area called the 'tidepools' at Crystal Cove.  The expansive view from the tidepool rocks acts as a stage for the ocean cove and the cottages which is so unique here.   It is a nutshell of marine life, blue ocean waters lipping onto the sandy shores with shabby residences from the past that takes you into another time when life was truly just a beach.