Layers Upon Layers

Yellow Kayak
40 x 30

This painting has been on and off the easel all summer as I tried to make it convey a mood and a sense of the airy, carefree day at the beach during which I took the photo reference.
The woman in the photo seemed almost monumental as she surveyed the water.  Her body is not magazine perfect, but it's strong and she stood unselfconsciously, drawing my eyes in a way that none of the skinny 20 year olds on the beach could.
There's a lot of complexity and layering in this piece which is unlike my typical alla prima method. Using Liquin (not my usual medium, but useful for its quick dry, tough coat) and thin layers which I was exposed to in the Alex Kanevsky workshop last winter,  I didn't hesitate to go over and over passages with a variety of colours until they felt rich and interesting enough for my liking.  The painting gave my summer a nice sense of continuity: I always had something unfinished to put on the easel.
Now that it's done (at least, I think it's done), I'm going to start another long-term project and see where it takes me.
Happy painting!