Series: Down by the Sea

The Beach, 22" X 10.5" watercolor

by April M. Rimpo

It seems like unconsciously I work in series without really planning to do so.  In looking back at my work I find ships, sailboats, water scenes keep popping up. The latest The Beach is shown at right. This painting received a Second Place award. In this painting the sailboat is secondary to the people musseling on the beach, yet the pathways in the sand and water do bring you back around to the lovely sailboat making me want to sail away.

The Beach

watercolor

22 " X 10.5" image

28 " X 16" brushed silver frame
$650 within the United States *

Available for Purchase Here 

Sailboats are the central focus in several of my paintings over the years.  Race on the Cove was sold from a solo exhibit at the Dorchester Art Center in Cambridge, Maryland back in 2002.

Race on the Cove, watercolor by April M. Rimpo

Even oils that predated my switch to watercolor in 1997 depicted people on the beach, as shown in Kennebunkport below.

Kennebunkport, oil by April M. Rimpo

So what draws me to beach and water scenes?  I think it is the serenity I find by the ocean.  This struck me most dramatically when I visited the Pacific coast in Oregon as a college student.  Unlike the beaches I  experienced on the Atlantic coast as a child, there are very few people; there is nothing but the sound of crashing waves and maybe the frolic of an otter.

The power of nature is very real and poignant; when there I feel totally at peace.  I can sit on the cliffs by myself and just stare for hours.  There are no troubles of the world, there is nothing that I feel I have to do except sit and enjoy.

Clearly in Race on the Cove there is a lot of activity on the water, but as I remember that day there was no throng of people crowding a beach and distracting me from the race.  Again, quiet was the predominant sensation.  Of course, the color of the sails add that splash that I love, so this became another one of those precious moments I cherish. 

I have a few quotations at the bottom of my blog.  One is by John Burk that perfectly characterizes how I feel about many of my paintings.

 "Time spent in a painting is very much like going there again on vacation.  And when the painting is done, I have seen every detail and nuance so thoroughly, that a glance at the completed work is sufficient for a short visit."

Perhaps that is why I paint so many of these types of landscapes.  I know you won't revisit my experience when you look at these paintings, but I hope they do bring back to you some wonderful time you spent by the ocean or on a lake.  I'd love to hear your stories.  They will add a new dimension to my art that I could never enjoy otherwise.

For other water and boat scenes take a look at these other blog posts.  

• Port of Call - NYC
• Tall Ship Gloria
• The Dugouts
• Flores  SOLD
• Wash Day
• At One with Their Gondolas 
• A Day at the Fountain

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution, but all other uses are prohibited.

Working plein air - "Solitude", "Windy" and "Harbor Bait"

Solitude 8" X 12" fluid acrylic on watercolor paper
by April M Rimpo

I am without a question a studio painter, but about once per year I venture outside to paint plein air. I traveled with four friends to Maine, where we rented a house for a week with the intention of painting plein air most every day.  We started out strong. First meeting with a someone who paints in this area for four months each summer to find out the "best spots" for plein air painting. She had quite a few suggestions, so we headed out our first day to explore the Cuckolds Island lighthouse in Boothbay Harbor. 

Cuckolds Island Lighthouse

I don't think I was the only one to be surprised how far offshore this lighthouse is from the public wharf, but it just seemed right to me to be the first thing I painted on this trip. I did feel like having binoculars might have helped to see, but I think it freed me from worrying about the details, which are somewhat superfluous when painting outdoors. Plein air painting all about simplification and capturing the moment. By lunch time Solitude was complete. As you can see I took liberties by adding the colors of sunrise to give the scene some spark.  The teal blues were visible in the sky and water, although you can't seem them in the photograph.  

Windy 6" X 6" fluid acrylic on Aquabord
by April M Rimpo

After lunch I moved out on the dock to paint another scene. The wind decided to come up that afternoon, first blowing my hat off and later whisking my water container off my palette and onto the dock. Although my partner-in-crime, who was also painting on the dock, decided to head back in where there were houses to block the wind, I persisted.

I was working on a 6" X 6" Aquabord and was determined to get it done. Windy is the result. Working on Aquabord is quite different from painting on watercolor paper. It requires a lot more layers, so the result looks a lot more like an oil than a fluid acrylic.

In just a couple hours the water had changed from the lovely warm and teal blues we saw in the morning to gray with lots of rough water caused by the wind. It has always been amazing to me how some plein air painters even paint in the snow to capture the moment. I guess my windy experience showed me how an artist can get pulled into dealing with the weather to make the painting happen.  

Windy - SOLD through HorseSpirit Arts Gallery

Fisherman's Wharf in Boothbay Harbor

Another day we ventured to the local fisherman's wharf. This part of the harbor was thick with boats, buildings, and houses along the shore. Equipment and storage containers littered the docks. It was overwhelming. The image at right shows the scene before me while I was painting. 

If I was an experienced plein air painter I would probably select one or two boats and paint those, but the studio painter in me wanted more. I spent nearly an hour creating a sketch of the scene and then another half hour transferring it to my watercolor paper. By the time I started to paint, several of my comrades had made great progress on their paintings. The woman who paints in Boothbay each summer joined us that morning and completed her painting in the time it took me to get ready to start painting.

Harbor Bait by April M Rimpo

My "simplification" was to only eliminate the boats and buildings along the shore in the background. I chose to add people who were on the dock at various times while I painted. By the time we stopped for lunch I was nowhere near done, so I worked on it back at the house off and on for a couple days to finish this up. As you can see the immediacy associated with plein air work is NOT apparent in Harbor Bait, but it was still fun to get it started on site.

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo 2016 All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.