Kathleen Elsey
Contemporary Fauvist / Expressionist Painter


The Salty Edge

The Salty Edge
Acrylic on canvas   36” x 48”

One of ten beach-themed paintings featured in the 2011
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum Two-Woman exhibition “The Salty Edge.”

The Salty Edge was made in the summer of 2011. It was painted for my museum exhibition of the same title. The Maritime Museum in Santa Barbara featured ten of my beach-themed paintings in this two-woman exhibition. This canvas was first covered with three coats of gesso. After making several sketches in my sketchbook I had determined my composition and how to translate the beach scene into paint on canvas. I applied fiber paste with a palette knife to create various shapes on the canvas. After it dried, I applied soft gel matte with my hands then carved into it with the bluntend of a bone burnishing tool. It took a few more days to dry in the sun. Fortunately it was summer in Santa Barbara with hot dry heat. I used Winsor Newton paints and a combination of my sta-wet palette and also the Miello palette which seal up tight after a painting session. The new acrylic Winsor Newton paints stay moist and creamy for weeks in my Miello palette so I can set the painting aside for a few days then come back to beautiful thick paint.

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© 2011 Kathleen Elsey