""Kiawah Island Doorway" Painting

While on our family vacation to Kiawah Island in South Carolina, I painted a series of plein air paintings. Kiawah has an open beach market with outdoor seating and colorful shade umbrellas, perfect for painting on location. The "Colorful Canopy" is large in this painting. Sitting in the foreground, occupying the top third of the painting making large blocks of beach colors. In the middle ground is a complete umbrella, an ice-cream stand and the reflection of sunlit trees in the windows of a cafe. Really fun to paint and even more so to bring it inside. It brights up any room we've displayed it in. Plein air (painting outdoors on location) is a challenge. The light source, the sun, is always moving. Shadows and sunlight areas are always changing and you have to deal with strong winds. Painting in public usually draws an audience as an added distraction. But the finished painting always has a quality that is very different from studio work. Plein air paintings are usually small so they can be completed in 4 hours or less. Plein air paintings show the skill of a painter. There is no time to correct mistakes. Each brush stroke must be the correct value and color the first time. Acrylics on hardboard. Signed and dated on back and my be hung straight out of the box with a gator tooth hanging bracket, displayed on a small table top easel or framed. - standard size and may be hung straight out of the box. If a frame is desired, this work will fit a standard open back frame. Quality inexpensive frames can be found at Dick Blick.