The Third Layer is the Charm
This painting began life as a plein air piece I did for the 2019 Carmel Art Festival. It was quite a rainy week, and I painted it from the Marina State Beach parking lot between rain squalls. Painting out of the back of my SUV, I was in and out of the car as the rain kept coming and going throughout the morning. Here’s a few pictures (click to see entire picture)–
The painting didn’t sell at the festival, in fact it was a bad year for sales as the setup was different with not much light on my pieces, and it was raining off and on the entire time.
I never was entirely satisfied with the piece, as I didn’t like the clouds. Some time later, I tried touching the clouds up in the studio, but still wasn’t satisfied with the result.
The last few weeks has seen some dramatic skies in our area, just like what was happening 5 years prior during the Carmel Art Festival. A few days ago, some clouds were drifting by just like what I wanted to see in the painting. So, I repainted the clouds from my back yard. I guess you could call this a plein air painting layered on a studio painting layered on a plein air painting!
Below are the two paintings, the original on the left, and the just completed refurbishing on the right.
Monterey Bay Squall, 24×12, oil on canvas
Now, the big question is, should I put a seagull or two back in the new version??
BTW, at the time, we had thought about moving to the area, but didn’t realize in six months we would be in a new home just a few miles away from this location!