Morning and Evening

Morning
Our morning walk to the beach passed through these beautiful anchioline ponds...there is no direct connection to the nearby ocean, but the water level in the ponds rises and falls with the tide.  These were native in this spot, but after the development of hotels and condos nearby, they had to be rebuilt by man.  They seem to still be working on removing plants and fish that are not native.

The colors in these ponds were extraordinary--black lava rock salted with chunks of white coral, bright green and yellow mosses and grasses (I finally pulled out my Quin Gold watercolor from my second palette), and the shallow ponds reflecting the deep blue of the sky...just beautiful.

I rushed this a bit, as I was eager to follow those people on the path and get to the beach!!!

One morning, I started walking to the beach, plopped down on the ground at this spot, and did this sketch. Working in a hot climate, I can actually underpaint the sketch as it will dry quickly and I can layer more color over it.  Here you can see how I underpainted with warm and cool colors.

Evening
That same evening, I headed out to the beach to capture the sunset...usually, these are challenging to do because this late in the day, the paints don't dry!  And of course, I tried to do a very wide angle view, getting the trees on my left, the rocks in front, and the sunset to my right...not a great sketch, but an end to a nice day in the sun!