"Beetle Rock"

Plein Air painting of "Beetle Rock" in Marshfield, MA  8x10 oil

Spending all my summers on Old Rexhame beach in Marshfield, left me a strong yearning to return as often as possible. In April, as soon as the weather turned warm, I packed up my easel and paints and headed for Rexhame beach. The tide was going out, so I knew I would be able to spend a couple of hours painting my favorite rock before the ocean claimed it once more. The wind and tidal pools helped determine my angle. This angle is the one I saw as I walked up the beach from our house as a child. My friends and I spent many hours climbing on and around Beetle Rock. We would swim out to it and sit on it waiting for the tide to go out and then climb down and go about looking for the  treasures among the rocks. Hours of collecting starfish and crabs, sea glass and shells occupied summer days. Horseshoe crabs and  lobster buoys were especially prized, but all would be returned to the sea  when we walked back to Old Rexhame . I painted mid-tide, silhouetting the rock and portraying the sense of the many large and small, wet and dry rocks surrounding my focal point. Detail in the foreground rocks was kept at a minimum to keep the focus on my main subject  Further out in the background is "Haystack rock"which was also important to the composition. We had names for all the big rocks and it is so interesting to hear they are all called by the same name by new residents so many years later.  After finishing this painting, I turned toward Old Rexhame and painted "Tank rock"-another of the named rocks from my childhood. The color harmony, salty taste,  smell, dampness and sound of the ocean are all part of the sensory experience I wanted to feel when I finished  this painting.  It was about the rock, but it was also about the sensual experience of visiting it again.