I had a week off and spent the time painting from Carmel > Big Sur > Ragged Point > San Simeon.  It was a wonderful week focused on painting!

In these two studies (painting at Asilomar, just north of Carmel) I was focusing on the use of dark transparent colors to represent the ocean.  click on the paintings to see the detail.  Notice how the use of transparent Ultramarine Blue gives it a nice watercolor-like glow. Even though it’s a dark color, it reflects the white board underneath, so it gives it the feeling of both being dark and light at the same time.  To create the reflection of light on water, I wiped away more of the paint to show the white ground, rather than paint a second color on top.  BTW, pure Ultramarine is too intense to represent the Pacific, so I deaden the color, generally with a Cad Red, or sometimes with Gamblin’s Chromatic Black–a great transparent Black that will reduce the chroma of any color.