A few months ago I signed up as a Patreon subscriber to Chris Fornatero’s online oil painting lessons. I had been painting in acrylics before that and really wanted to try my hand painting in oil. Chris has a YouTube channel called Paint Coach and he really breaks down the painting process into understandable steps and I’ve learned a lot watching his lessons. Chris must live near Sarasota because a lot of his landscape lessons feature beach scenes in that area. Here is one of my paintings from his lesson based on the path to the beach at Siesta Key Beach. I love the way the areas of shade and light cut across the path. I remembered this specific spot from a trip I took to Siesta key a couple of years ago.
It is one of the widest beaches I’ve ever been to, with what seemed like a couple of football field of sand before you get to the water. The picture below was taken by me on our last trip to Siesta key before the Pandemic. It is probably the most popular beach on that part of the Gulf coast.
As crowded as Siesta Key is, there are a number of other smaller beaches on the gulf that aren’t as crowded. Below is another paintng I did during one of my lessons of a small beach looking across the bay. This one also highlights the dappled light and shade in the palm trees lining the beach.
Learning to paint is a lifelong process. Apparently many professional painters take workshops from other painters throughout their career to boost their creativity and develop new skills. For a beginner I recommend looking for an artist with an online presence that paints in a style you would like to learn and watch their videos. Many are quite good at teaching beginners and it is an affordable way to start. If I can do this, I’m sure you can too!
All images used in this post were created by me. If you would like to use any of these images, please let me know.
