Category Archives: Seascapes
Nantucket Beach Roses 8×10 pastel
‘A Nantucket Bouquet’ 8×10 pastel ©2012 Karen Margulis
I have Nantucket sand in my shoes. My Grandfather was born and raised on Nantucket Island. A few years ago I did our family genealogy and discovered we go back to the founding fathers of the island. I also discovered a treasure….an unknown cousin who has lived on Nantucket all of his life and along with his father built many of the island homes. I have been to visit him a couple of times and hope to go back.
Nantucket is the most beautiful and inspiring place just full of magical landscapes. Nantucket has it all….beautiful beaches both wild and tame, harbors full of colorful boats, lighthouses, a wonderful town that takes you right back to the 1700′s…cobblestone streets, gas lights and window boxes filled with flowers. But that is not all…the interior of the island has magical moors and meadows filled with wilflowers, misty marshes, ponds filled with waterlilies. Not to mention the birds and other wildlife. I could spend an entire summer soaking up and painting the beauty of this island. To see more Nantucket paintings please visit my daily painting blog HERE
Nantucket Beach Paintings
‘Nantucket Dunes’ 8×10 pastel
‘Nantucket Beach Dreams’ 8×10 pastel
You have a nice photo that you want to paint. But it just nice….nothing special or exciting. How can you make it have more impact? Change the horizon! Take a good look at that reference photo. Where is the horizon? If it is right in the middle than move it up or down….or do a painting with each point of view. It is usually not a good composition with the picture divided in half. You don’t want equal emphasis on the sky and the land. That is boring and often the viewer isn’t sure where to look first.
- Spice things up by choosing what you want to be more important. When I look at a scene one of the first things I decide is if I want the painting to be about the sky or about what’s happening on the ground. Each choice will have an entirely different mood and feeling. I like to do thumbnail sketched and try out my choices. It is challenging to break away from a literal interpretation of the photo but a simple change of horizon will open up many possibilities for a more interesting painting.
I decided to to paint two versions of my Nantucket Island Beach scene. In the top painting It is more about the dunes and grasses. The sky is softened and downplayed. In the bottom painting, I moved the horizon down so I could focus on the sky. I added more interest with some clouds and downplayed the grasses. What a fun and easy way to break free from copying a boring photo!
PS Both paintings are done on Pastelmat paper which I will be reviewing here this week so be sure to sign up for updates.
Sanibel Island Beach Path
‘Path to the Sea’ 8×10 pastel
Today’s painting is another Sanibel Island scene. I love painting pathways to the beach and when I walk the beach with my camera I like to go up and down every path I see to get different angles in my photos. This painting is done on Canson paper, moonstone. I really enjoy painting on Canson lately!
Florida Dunes Plein Air
‘Florida Dunes’ 5×7 plein air
I took out my box of plein air studies for a class and had fun looking through them and remembering some of my painting trips. This one was done at Greyton Beach State Park in Florida. I went with a group of my artist friends and we all stayed at one of our friend’s wonderful beach house! It was very hot that weekend but we all took our pastels to the park and painted all morning under the picnic shelters. They had a great view of the dunes so we stayed cool in the shade. What a fun trip!
Last Light…Sunset at the Beach 18×24
‘Last Light’ 18×24 pastel
I am offering this painting at a reduced price for my Moving Sale. I have always like this painting and it just hasn’t found it’s home yet. This is a scene I came across up in the Cape May NJ area. We were chasing the sunset and came to the beach just in time to see the last bit of warm light illuminate the beach. The contrast of warm and the cool colors of the dunes was very exciting. If you are interested in purchasing this painting, it is available for $175 plus $10 for shipping. Email me at kemstudios@yahoo.com for more information.
Cape May Beach Pastel Painting
‘Late Afternoon in Cape May’ 8×8 pastel
I have always avoided too much surface blending in my pastel paintings. I have always preferred to let the pastel layers blend themselves or to see my strokes. I have tried to keep my fingers off the painting except for an occasional softening of edges with my finger. In my Back to Basics Pastel class we have been taking a look at the different ways we have to apply the pastel. We have done linear marks, side strokes and this week we will take a look at blending. So I have been playing around with paintings that are mostly blended just to see what happens. I have been using canson and other drawing papers rather than sanded paper and I am really enjoying the soft moody quality I can get. So the question is ….do you blend your pastels or do you keep your fingers off the painting? If you are a blender what are your favorite blending tools?
St. George Island Florida Painting
St. George Island Spring’ 8×10 pastel
Last Spring I spent a week with friends on St. George Island. We explored and walked the beach and painted for 5 glorious days! I love this part of Florida. It is unspoiled and simply beautiful.