From plein air to studio

In September, I painted several plein air paintings at La Push, a small fishing village on the outer coast of Washington. Now I’d like to enter an art show that asks for a plein air painting plus a studio painting developed from the plein air painting. The idea is to contrast the immediacy of the in-the-field effort against the more leisurely and controlled environment of the studio.

One of my plein air paintings was a painting of a boat at the fish dock in La Push, so I used it as my starting point. I painted 8 more paintings of the same subject. Each time I painted it I was unsatisfied, but I learned something on each attempt. Below you can see the finished product, and below that you can see some of my earlier versions.

I love the harbor at La Push. It’s a dramatic scene, with James Island just out to sea from the harbor, and you can see the swells from the open ocean crashing against the outside of the island. As soon as the boats leave the harbor, they encounter the open ocean. It’s not a place for a faint-hearted fisherman.