Face Rock State Scenic Viewpoint is a great place to watch the king tides roll in to touch the cliffs. I love how working in encaustics allows me to replicate the ocean’s flow over the beach. I did the under painting in layers of purple and orange for the sand. Then the water was done by melting clear encaustic medium with a little opaque titanium white. The white gathered at the edge of the flow to create the frothy waves and added a slight three dimensional effect.
This is a familiar place on Bandon’s beach with Face Rock and the Kitten Rocks in the background. However, the foreground was transformed by bright sunlight shining through a soft mist onto a newly carved out beach pond.
The sea water becomes a shape shifter as it hits the rocks, tangles with the kelp and bulges up as it finds an inlet.
Painting water fascinates me as does painting what the retreating tide leaves behind. A new little pond and dark sand ripples were left for us to find on this misty morning.
I have begun to go back and rework some of my less successful encaustics into new paintings. With this painting I started with an already heavy dark background and carved out the lighter areas for the ocean waves to streak across the painting. The result is a contrast of solid dark rocks with light foamy water and mist.
The retreating tide carved a deep green pool behind the rocks and surrounded it with intricate patterns in the sand.
12″ x 12″
The lovely tide pool contrasted nicely with the soft waves and morning mist beyond the rocks. This is the second in the “Rock Pool” series. It was done from a reference photo at a slightly different angle which caught Coquille Point and Elephant Rock in the coastal mist on the horizon.
12″ x 12″
The lovely low tide pool contrasted nicely with the soft waves and morning mist beyond the rocks.
20″ x 16″
There is a place on the Coquille River jetty which is perfect for watching the king tide waves roll in. The waves rise like mountains right before they break and crash. I find myself using titanium white more sparingly and using the transparent beeswax/damar resin medium for the lighter areas.
12″ x 12″
This painting is named after a chrysoprase stone which is a translucent light green-aqua-turquoise color similar to this sunlit wave. The winter king tides have been stirring up lots of thick froth to watch, photograph and then try to paint.
encausticsite 