Mural progression

What inspires an artist? I am inspired by color and texture.  I see something beautiful and I want to paint it.  It could be something as simple as wallpaper,  the texture of stone, the color of the sky or  fabric.    I can not explain the satisfaction I get when I create or re-create something beautiful.  

  

A mural is a large scale painting.  For this piece I chose a beach scene.   The movement and variations in color of the ocean are so varied that I find it fascinating to paint.  

I see a mural as a layering process.   When you  look at the ocean the colors change as your eye moves further into the horizon.  The first layer is the foreground as it is in this painting.  The next layer is the objects and their placement and the last layers are in the details.  This is an example of the first layer,  a way of providing myself with a color palette.

This next photo is where I decided on the placement of the key elements. The Adirondack chairs, ocean movement, depth of the horizon and sand texture are begin to take shape.

At this point I am midway towards completion of the painting.  The clouds and shadows are painted.  As you can see from the photo previous photo I was not happy with the movement of the water.  The magic of painting is that you can literally paint over your mistakes.  The sky has been darkened toward the upper portion to give sense of depth.

 

 

The birds sea shells and the palm tree are added.

 

The final details to the are added to the palm tree, ocean and shadows.