Sand Dune Painting
The NC coast has provided subject matter for my oil and pastel paintings for more than three decades. In 2000 I made what I felt was a break through in my personal style. That year I started a series of pastel compositions that focused on close up views of the sand dunes at Jockey’s Ridge in Nags Head. These subjects were painted in pastel and can be classified as abstract. I used one of these, Seclusion, as the model for a re-interpretation in oil paints.
Seclusion
Shifting Dunes was painted in a half-day of dynamic and spontaneous mark making. While the pastel is more refined and subtler in color the oil version matches the painterly approach with bold, rich colors. Drawing with my paint in a calligraphic manner gives the painting its expression – sea oats blowing in the wind.
Shifting Dune
Shifting Dunes was so different from the pastel model I decided I would try another version. Because Seclusion had been sold I was working from an 8” x 10” digital print of the painting. The Color of Sand is a truer cousin of the model and expresses in oil paint many of the same traits of the pastel in terms of use and application of color. As a side note I may add that this painting was rejected by juror Michael W. Haga from the 34th Annual Juried Show at the Anderson Arts Center, Anderson, SC. Needless to say I was very disappointed.
The Color of Sand
