Painting outside is not only a big part of my process as an artist, but it was part of my original dream when I first dreamed of painting the seaside as a young girl. You can read more on "Where it all began" for me here. For me, there's magic at the edge of the earth, the coastline, the ocean, the seaside. Whether it's the lake or the ocean, she is my muse.
When I paint, I paint from a very special place. A place of happiness, nostalgia, and freedom. These are all things I find along the coast. The smell of the salt air that permeates my nose, the way the waves hit my ankles and sink my feet into the sand... Mentally, it's where my heart, thoughts, and feelings converge- with the end result spilling out through my paintbrush. When I'm outside, I allow my eyes to dance along the shoreline, gathering details, lines, and shapes I want to remember. I love to do this when I'm at the beach playing with my children, with my film camera, and when I'm lucky enough to have my sketchbook or my easel and paints along with me.
It's only when I enter back into the studio, my sketchbook full of color palettes and composition ideas that I begin to paint from a very intuitive place. That flow state. I gather my favorite photographs, and by examining what I was drawn to in the moment and what marks I put in my sketchbook, I paint from those themes.
*Images in this post by Annie Parish Photography and Andrea Naylor