Redondo Beach, California Painting for Kincaid's! by Jen Beaudet

soon to be seen in Kincaid's in Redondo

Painting number 2 is complete, and now it's on to the last one!This is Redondo/Torrance Beach California from a rare viewpoint. It was taken from the water not by me, no way! By photographer Randy Ruby! 

When they're thoroughly dry they can be shipped. I may hand deliver them, but will have to think about that. It's a 10 hour drive from here so…and…they won't fit in my car! I do want to be there when they're hung, though. We'll see. In case you can't tell from the photo this painting is enormous! It measures 60 inches across and 30 inches high! It took me about 2-3 weeks to paint and that was putting in long hours each day. Not the 11x14 painting that I'm accustomed to finishing in one day. This has been a great experience so far, and a lot of fun gaining new local fans on Facebook! I feel so blessed to have been chosen for this! Out of all the artists out there I still can't believe it! Anyway, I'm truly grateful to whoever was the one that spotted my work on here! Was it the restaurant designer? Was it the company? I wish I knew. All I can say is thank you! And thank you to Reggie for keeping me on (you could have picked anyone!) and especially to Randy Ruby for allowing me to paint your photographs! They really are something special and I hope I did them justice. 

So now, it's on to the last one (after this one sets up a little. It's impossible to move at this point without messing it up). 

Thanks so much for following my progress! Hang in there Floral and figure (vintage lady) fans! I promise I'll get back to my normal paintings soon…and will have lots of new Parisian photos to use very soon!

Jennifer

Coastal Painting in Progress

Here's what's on my easel this week! It's an oil on 24x36 canvas; large for me! I've been posting my progress on my Facebook page and hopefully will finish it up this weekend! 

This is the view from Torrance/Redondo Beach sidewalk. It's where I grew up. Thirty years of my life were spent there, actually thirty one if you count the year I moved back. I miss it…a lot. It's hard when you grow up in such a beautiful place being able to roller skate to the beach, spending the whole day there 'til the sunsets. I have the best memories from this place! It's my home, and always will be. I'm displaced right now, in the mountains, so far from the ocean. How can you miss a place so much it hurts? I feel the same way about Hawaii though and I didn't grow up there. Must be the ocean, it gives me life! 

Anyway, as you can see, this painting has a very deep meaning to me. I could almost paint it from memory. I'm mostly using a brush for this one, with some areas needing a palette knife for a nice edge. The flowers in the foreground are from blooming ice-plant (which brings back memories of writing on the sidewalk with it. Did you ever done that?) 

The blooms are a beautiful magenta and bright yellow (which I haven't added yet). Ice-plant is not the most aesthetic of plants but I'm trying to achieve an impressionistic feel to it so that it's more appealing. 

The sand in the above stage was to saturated in color so I toned it down adding some ultra marine blue and more white, to the mix. This set it back further and made the hill come forward. I feel the hill is too dark though so I'l lightened it up with some a little lighter but saturated color mixed with areas of greys. 

This was stage one. I toned the canvas with orange since it would be a predominantly blue piece, this would give the painting some warmth and unity. I sketched in the scene very roughly with a brush.

 I usually use a darker color but this one worked. 

The lines aren't visible in the end so it didn't matter. 

This stage was done with acrylics. 

So, this is what I'll be doing this weekend! What are you up to? 

Jennifer