beach challenge: crane beach

for my second week of the beach challenge, holly took me up to beautiful crane beach in ipswich, ma. it is a stunning place with miles of dunes, beautiful water (so shallow we walked out a good quarter mile and were still only up to our knees), and magical light.

this is my least favorite beach painting.  the light shifted so suddenly.  i left it to check out what we thought was a seal (was a log in the ocean), and then came back to accidentally dump sand all over the canvas (to then scrape half of it down). it feels really incomplete, but not a loss. 

it was a learning experience to work quickly and confidently and not to wander off too long when the shadows, tides, and light conditions will change moment to moment.