Seacliff Beach Birds Gather together

"The Gathering"
24 X 30 oil painting
Seacliff Beach, Aptos, CA

The brilliant colors that dance across the water and beach  at sunset are tantalizing. The hues vary as the sun gets lower in the sky and finally disappears below the horizon. Once it disappears the afterglow continues to paint a beautiful scene for anyone who lingers. One thing I love is the gathering of seabirds that seem to come out for sunset each evening. In the painting above using a blue orange harmony, I wanted to create a warm and inviting aura with the birds bathed in the warmth of the setting sun. Their casual meandering is calm and unhurried representing a  sense of another day's satisfactory completion.  

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" Seabirds at Sunset"
24x36 oil painting
Aptos, CA

In this version of birds gathering on the beach at dusk, I was drawn to the color harmonies and repetition of the skies  colors in the wet sand. The zig zag diagonals in the wet sand leading to the pounding surf  echo the sounds and energy that I felt in this scene. A large gathering of birds scurried about in the last lit section of the beach taking in the final rays of the January sun. I used a limited palette on a very large canvas. My goal is to achieve a painting that reflects the  multiple senses that are being bombarded at the time; The harmonious colors, the salty spray, the tumultuous surf, the fading sunlight and the wet sand.