The Tao of Composition

Lands End, San Francisco, 13 x 16 inches

In this piece by the American landscape painter, Raymond Dabb Yelland, the rocky foreground is roughly equal in area to the muted tones of the background sea and sky, forming a kind of Yin Yang composition. The small rock in the waves on the left helps marry the two halves. It's always good to add a little of the Yin in the Yang, and vice versa.

Frederick Judd Waugh

Here's a link to a great post on the painting notes of F. Judd Waugh, the great master of surf painting: art and influence blog.

His seascape palette included three blues: cobalt, ultramarine, and cerulean. Viridian green combined with cerulean blue produces the turquoises in his foreground waves. Cerulean and viridian are essential for capturing the hues of seawater. He added the cool red, Alizarin crimson, to his skies to suggest distant rosiness. He also included cadmium red and yellow in his palette, warm colors suitable for foreground rocks and sand; and burnt and raw sienna would have served for underpainting cliffs and rocks. Sea foam needs to be a bright and opaque white. He used "permalba" white and ivory black (a cool black tending towards blue, suitable for the sea).
I'm not sure what was in the permalba white manufactured in the early 20th century but on a painting forum I read that the permalba white in art shops today is not very opaque.

Some books on F. Judd Waugh:

Paintings of the sea.

Memorial Exhibition: Paintings of the Sea By Frederick Judd Waugh, N.a., 1861-1940

More poetry

Frits Thaulow, Solitude, Christiana Fjord

Frits Thaulow (1847 - 1906) was a Norwegian impressionist painter. The best Impressionists, including Monet, often made use of punchy tonal contrasts, and used black, though there is a misconception that they completely avoided it and only used pastel shades.

Edward Moran 1829-1901

Top: Shipwrecked
Bottom: Sailing in Rough Seas

Edward Moran's works invoke a poetic mood. Something to aim for in painting any subject.

In Shipwrecked, the white lighthouse represents hope, and is contrasted to the dark waves on the left.

Moran sets off the lighthouse, and the white waves breaking on it, by placing an area of grey rain behind.

Marine Paintings: Edward Moran- Masterpainter (Volume 1)

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

The energy of the brushwork recalls the work of Van Gogh. The orange and blue areas intensify each other.

Montague Dawson

These are two images of Dawson's The Fleet Messenger, found on different websites. They demonstrate that reproductions can differ greatly from the original, and each other.

Thanks to the blog underpaintings for originally posting this work.

Another Newlyn School Artist

Mary McCrossan, Wind and Surf.











There are often purple/violet shades to be seen in the wet beach.