dunes 3

Medium

Traditional

Artist Notes

This painting is an 18 x 24 inches original watercolour and is also available as a fine art modern print. It is a huge modern artwork of a beach nautical seascape. The foreground is high beach dunes. You can't see the beach but you know it is there! The location is Cocoa Beach Florida, while I was staying at the Ron Jon Surf Resort. Cocoa Beach is the nearest beach to Orlando, Florida the city that hosts Disney World and Universal Studios.

While driving down A1A in Cocoa Beach there are certain areas where large companies have purchased the land and you cannot view the dunes from the road. This spot is a place road side where you are very close to the beach right off of A1A and this is a view from the street as a tourist would see while passing by. There is little undisturbed beachfront property remaining in Florida.

Brevard County, the county for Cocoa Beach is the home of three-time surf champion, Kelly Slater. This are is also the place where the TV show “I Dream of Jeanie” was filmed. This particular painting is a scene only a few feet from “I Dream of Jeanie Lane”. I personally loved that show when I was growing up. Brevard County is also the home of Cape Canaveral Florida where NASA launches the space shuttle and other numerous rockets.

My intent with this painting was to be very basic. Very little is sometimes just right, especially when it comes to watercolours and keeping the look soft. The sand on these sand dunes feels like baby powder under your feet and I tried to replicate that in the work. The darker shades of beige in the sand are light damp spots from dripping from the overhead sea oats and shadows. The sea oats are also a protected plant. The reason that the sand dunes are high is they protect the land from the erosion caused by high-energy blasting waves especially during the hurricane season. The sea oats in the sand assist in providing stability for the earth to provide a natural barrier for the elements and the ocean.