Rough Seas, Nag's Head

Rough Seas, Nag's Head

Oil on canvas, 10x10

Tubac Trip painting No. 1

Painting came to me out of the blue, and sometimes, sometimes, I am gripped with the fear that it will leave me the same way. 

The time I have that fear most pointedly is before the first painting of a trip. 

I've bought all the supplies, made all the arrangements, done all the loading, left the husband and the home and the friends and the pets, and now - what if it doesn't work? 

I like to do the first painting as soon as possible, to get over the fear, to get the whole thing started. 

So even though it was insanely windy, so windy that sand had blown in drifts like heavy snow, and Outer Banks roads were closed because of it, even though the waves were pounding in climbing masses at the lip of the beach - even so, I stopped to paint. 

And I love this piece! It has all the wildness of the raging sea, and the screaming wind - and more than a few grains of real Outer Banks sand, too. 

Here's my painting in the landscape

Here's some of that huge surf!