“The greatest meeting of land & water in the world” is how watercolorist Francis McComas described Point Lobos, the California State Natural Reserve located at the north end of Big Sur, but in reality, his passionate pronouncement could just as well be applied to any number of spots along this spectacular, 100-mile or so stretch of coastline. On a sunny day in early October, Tom & I drove the 2-lane Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur for the first time in a decade. We went as far south as Nepenthe & it was every bit as breathtaking as we had remembered. Well, let’s face it: Spectacular scenery notwithstanding, who could ever forget those precipitous drops, those hairpin curves….those miniscule guardrails?
In huge contrast to the sense of perpetual tranquility offered up by Captiva Island & described in the last blog, the beaches we visited along Big Sur & on neighboring Monterey Peninsula presented us with all the drama of crashing surf & spraying sea foam, of wave-sculpted rocks & wind-sculpted trees. Standing at Point Joe on the Seventeen Mile Drive, for instance, we were “confronted by” rather than “beckoned to,” so telling the story of the strength & turbulence of the ocean would require different composition & design choices from those made for the “Captiva Beach” sketch.
Here is the plot of “Point Joe”: A wave has just barreled in & pounds the rocks near the shore, sending sea spray high into the air. The water from an earlier wave is still swirling around some partially-submerged, smaller rocks, whose tops are rounded from the ocean’s ceaseless buffing. Indeed, in the distance, thin pleats of dark blue indicate where the water is gathering itself up yet again. Cormorants speckle the seaward side of a rock whose shape & texture give evidence of the ancient & complex forces of Planet Earth.
And here is how to buttress this plot: Chose landscape format to suggest the vastness of the ocean. Keep the sky uneventful & relegate it to a narrow strip by moving the horizon line up to the top third of the painting. Puncture this horizon line with a plume of white foam & the point of a craggy rock, thereby disrupting the soothing stability usually offered by a flat, straight line. Provide virtually no foreground so that the viewer is positioned at the very edge of the water, experiencing visually, so to speak, the roar, moisture & smell of the surf. Close off the painting on one side with some large rocks whose jagged shapes seem a bit ominous. Incorporate some diagonals by tilting the pebbly shoreline & the frothy wave action. Provide strong contrasts of dark & light values.
Below is the preliminary sketch for “Point Joe.”
