It seems like I go to the beach a lot  – but actually I don’t go nearly enough.

My favorite thing to do is paint on location and the Hobe Sound Beach is very condusive to that.  Everyone is using the fancy french term now – “plein air”, which is painting on location.  My main criteria for selecting a place to paint is some kind of a view (obviously), accessibility (easy access is important when you are hauling art supplies), and restrooms (if I plan on being there awhile).  Most of the time I’m not at a location more than a few hours, depending on the size of the painting.

The Hobe Sound Beach is a great place to paint because there is a covered pavillion with a number of picnic tables and there is a convenient rest room right next to it.  Here in Florida the shade is very important and even with the shade I still wear a hat in case I set up in a spot where the sun moves in later on.

If I decide to paint with oil paint then I usually use painting knives.  The knives are fun and easy to paint with, not to mention the wonderful impasto effect.  My preference is to use canvas panels that are made by Pintura – they are wood with canvas on the surface.  Stretched canvas has too much give to use with a knife.  Most people paint small when they paint on location, like maybe 6×8.  When I first started I used 8×10 or 11×14 and this painting is a whopping 16×20.  Painted on a very windy day – I had to hang on to it the whole time, which was only a couple of hours.