Summer

Much of the country is sweltering right now. Here the thermometer has shot all the way up to .... 80 F. One of our warmest days of the year, so far. We are lucky as it is still getting into the 50's at night.

With everyone thinking about the heat I thought it would be fun to do a "summery" piece. I have wanted to paint this for a couple years and have a hankering to do it now.

I may play more with the water (might be a few too many "stripes" near the bottom). The edge of the water is over the slope of the sand so want to create that feeling. I'll need to finish more of the painting before I revisit the water.

On to the people. I debated the color of the yellow sweater but decided to stick with it. With all the colors I'll have on the child, the simple "sand" color may act as a good basic to draw attention to the little girl. After I  decided on the yellow color, I found mixing the "right" yellow more difficult that I thought it would be. Various combinations of Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Lemon Yellow, Titanium White, and Yellow Ochre were tried and set aside or mixed with other colors. Much of the "shadow yellow" is a purple with Ultramarine Blue and either Burnt Sienna or Cadmium Red Deep, lightened with Titanium White.