Crazy, wild, violent ocean = Excitingly Difficult!

“Froth and Lace” ~ Ocean front at North Truro, Cape Cod, MA. 8″x10″ Water colour I really challenged myself with THIS one! We visited Cape Cod at the beginning of the season, in late May and early June, when the weather was decidedly cool and VERY fickle. Some days were warm and kind of sunny, others were foggy and there was also rain….It was really quite ENGLISH, up there in New England!!! Consequently, there was this one day when the wind was blowing very ferociously and at high tide the waves, just across the road from our rental, were whipped up into a frenzy. So I took it upon myself to try to render this in water colour….while making use of my growing skills with a little pot of masking fluid and a ruling pen. I chose a highly limeted palette of French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna as my gut was telling me not to be overly complicated with the colour.   I started it early in the vacation and worked on it off and on throughout – I almost gave up on it, a few times, but, I’m glad I didn’t. It was very satisfying to finally call it done and unmask the white parts to reveal the patterns of foam and turbulant, sand-loaded waves. I am not sure I would have started such a difficult undertaking if I had not had so many days of my vacation still in front of me – BUT – I’m actually pretty satisfied with it! It makes for a fantastic memory and I feel that it does evoke a good sense of the awesome power of this ocean and the dark, threatening of the sky.   In my minds eye, I can still feel the wind beating and tearing at my rainjacket and taste the salt on my lips! How about YOU, reader? Do you prefer your oceans and seas, serene and tranquil, with firey little ringlets of waves, flat and foggy, turquoise and sparkley or violently clawing and sucking at the land?   I think if I owned a home on the beachfront of the Cape, MY answer to that MIGHT be different!   –