Giant Dipper, Santa Cruz

Giant Dipper, Santa Cruz

original oil painting, 12x12 SOLD

Elliott Fouts Gallery

This is my fourth painting of the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is advertised everywhere during the summer in the Bay Area and it's a fun subject to paint.

The Giant Dipper above is a red and white, 1920s wooden roller coaster. It's a fan favorite, located on the beach with an unobstructed view of the ocean. 

I always look for some bold colors to make a strong composition. However, an amusement park has too much bright color and too much stuff. So I have to make decisions about toning down the color, harmonizing the color and simplifying the shapes. To suggest the atmospheric conditions of fog at the beach, in the background I added a little pink, yellow and pale blue color to the sky. Overall, I try to paint the shapes of color as I see them with tonal variations to suggest depth.  

Sea Swings at the Boardwalk, Santa Cruz

Sea Swings at the Boardwalk, Santa Cruz

original oil painting, 6x6, $175

Elliott Fouts Gallery

The Beach Boardwalk is only open on weekends until the end of March, then it's open daily.  The Sea Swings extend out high over the beach with the Monterey Bay below.

Boardwalk at Night, Santa Cruz

Boardwalk at Night

original oil painting, SOLD

Elliott Fouts Gallery

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is a seaside amusement park that has been operating since 1907. In my painting you can see the 1924 Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster, the Boardwalk's most popular ride. The unique location spans a wide sandy beach where it’s not unusual to see otters, dolphins, sea lions and even whales.

I was interested in the light and colors at night at the amusement park. As the sun was setting, the neon signs and lights contrasted with the evening shadows. There were hints of purple and yellow in the clouds reflecting the sun setting in the sky.

View from West Cliff, Santa Cruz

View from West Cliff, Santa Cruz 

original oil 6x6

Viewpoints Gallery
SOLD

The cliffs are very dramatic on the westside of Santa Cruz - a good subject for a painting.  As I setup to paint, it was a beautiful clear day and a wave was coming in from the right.  The surfers were just behind me at Steamer Lane. 

There were two main challenges with this painting. The first was to edit out details of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in the distance.  And the second was to emphasize the solid rock shapes in the foreground.  Emphasizing the rocks was easy because of the sharp contrast in values on the cliffs, the light yellow ochre color contrasts against the black shapes.  Simplifying the background is part of composing a scene.  I repeated some of the same shapes and used grayer values to make the background recede.   

Beach Street, Santa Cruz

Beach Street, Santa Cruz

8x10 original oil painting

SOLD

As you're walking along Beach Street in Santa Cruz, to the right is the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the Wharf and the Pacific Ocean.  On the left is the street scene above.  Beach Street is lined with surf shops, bikini shops, restaurants and all things related to surfing.