Monday, September 21, 2009

Painting from Memory

My husband and I were at the shore two weekends ago. There was a storm off the coast that was producing a strong on-shore wind and a very rough sea. The waves were large and when they crashed they made sea foam the color of beer. Their power was impressive from the relative safety of the boardwalk.


watercolor sketch of ocean
approx. 5" x 8" in Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
Stacy Rowan

The storm was making it too windy to paint outside. I was afraid the wind would rip my pages out of the sketchbook before I got any paint on them. But I still wanted to capture what I was seeing. So I watched the ocean trying to commit the unusual olive color, the crashing power and the foamy movement to memory. After we walked back to the condo, I pulled out my watercolor sketchbook, my compact set of half pans and two waterbrushes. Using these tools I did my best to recreate what I had seen.

This is the first time I have painted from memory and I was pleased with the result. (I know it looks like I have a curved horizon line, but I promise it is straight in the sketch.) It's definitely an exercise that I'll try again.

4 comments:

Jennifer Rose said...

its a good first attempt from memory :) the waves do have a nice sense of movement to them

Stacy said...

Thanks Jennifer! Looking at the image on my desktop this morning and it looks much too yellow. I uploaded it from my laptop where the colors looked like they were supposed to. I guess I'll have to try again, but it makes me wonder how different it looks from computer to computer.

Jennifer Rose said...

looks pretty green on my laptop

M J Muir said...

It is very green on my computer. I really like the sense of flow and movement you captured.
And I like the green. It is unusual and perhaps that is why you wanted to paint it.
Glad you are back at it stacy.

Mary Jane /blue