My beach commission is done and on it’s way to a very happy new owner in Santa Fe, New Mexico! This is Lanikai Beach in Hawaii, where I grew up, and this place holds many fine memories through college and beyond. I posted earlier about finding the perfect color but there’s even more to that story.
The palette in this scene is so vibrant in real life that I turned to a special paint from Enkaustikos in order to capture it. Their interference pigments were new to me, but they were exactly what I needed to get the sand and water just right. Because they are transparent these pigments are influenced by the color of the surface below. Colors mixed with interference medium will change (“flip”) when viewed from different angles. Over a white or light background like the sand, the color is subtle and the “flip” more obvious. Over a black or darker background like the water, the color is more obvious and the “flip” less noticeable.
Using these paints gave me the shimmer I wanted to really make these areas stand out. It’s really tough to photograph the results, so I hope you’ll get to experience it in person sometime.
I thoroughly enjoyed every step of creating this commission! This is one of those paintings I will think of often. I already miss it, so I may just have to make another one for myself.
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Linda Robertson is a painter and the author of the Embracing Encaustic book series. She offers live encaustic workshops in her Portland, Oregon studio as well as online encaustic classes.