PAINTING ON A BEACH AGAINST THE SUN
Three Summer Plein Air Studies About Light, Value, and Color
Summer is one of the most inspiring seasons for painting outdoors. The beaches come alive with people, colorful umbrellas appear along the shore, children play by the water, sailboats drift across the horizon, and the evening sun transforms the sea into a giant mirror.
Many artists avoid these scenes. They worry that there are too many people, that someone will stop to watch, ask questions, or accidentally walk in front of the easel. But lively beaches are full of life, movement, and authentic moments that simply cannot be invented in the studio.
Don't be afraid to paint in public. After a few minutes, people stop noticing you—and you begin to notice what truly matters. The light. It becomes the real subject of the painting.
In this article I'd like to share three small plein air studies painted directly into the evening sun, and explain why, in these conditions, you should think about value before color.
If your values are wrong, your colors will never look right.
Immediately it becomes clear that the entire composition is held together by value relationships.
Before thinking about color, I always try to imagine the painting without it. If the values work, color will only strengthen the image. If the values are incorrect, no beautiful color mixture will save the painting.
For the first ten or fifteen minutes of almost every plein air session, I concentrate almost entirely on the large value shapes. Color comes afterward.
Why Does the Sea Glow?
Many beginners instinctively reach for more white paint to make the sea sparkle. But the glow doesn't come from adding more white. It comes from the relationships between the values. If the sea is the lightest area of the painting, everything else must remain slightly darker. Even the light sand. Even white umbrellas. Even light-colored clothing.
Only then will the viewer truly feel the brilliance of the evening sun.
Sometimes a single figure can tell an entire story.
This painting is built on only three major value relationships.
- The lightest value — the sea.
- The middle value — the sand.
- The darkest value — the figure and its shadow.
Study Three – Painting a Figure Against the Light
This is a more advanced challenge.
When a figure is sitting directly against the light, we no longer see the local color of the skin. Instead, the skin begins reflecting the entire environment. The sky fills the upper planes with cool blue reflections. The sea introduces turquoise notes. The rocks reflect warm ochres and earth colors. The sand bounces warm light upward into the shadows.
On location, skin is never simply "flesh color." It becomes part of the landscape itself.
Sculpt the Form With Brushstrokes
If you look closely, you'll notice that the form isn't blended smoothly. Instead, it's built with individual brushstrokes.
I rarely overmix my paint. Rather than smoothing every transition, I place a warm stroke beside a cooler one, then another warm note. Little by little, the surface begins to vibrate with light.
This approach works beautifully for skin, rocks, sand, and reflections. Don't be afraid to leave visible brushstrokes. They often become the most convincing part of a plein air painting.
A Few Practical Tips for Painting Against the Sun
- Look for large value masses before individual objects.
- Try to imagine your subject in black and white before thinking about color.
- Don't make the sea brighter by adding more white—make everything around it slightly darker.
- Build the painting from large relationships before adding details.
- Constantly compare warm and cool colors. They only exist in relation to each other.
- Simplify figures. A strong silhouette is often more powerful than excessive detail.
- Work quickly. Light changes every minute, and your first impression is often the most truthful one.
Essential Colors
- Titanium White
- Cadmium Lemon (cool yellow)
- Cadmium Yellow Light (warm yellow)
- Indian Yellow
- Yellow Ochre
- Cadmium Red Light
- Alizarin Crimson
- Ultramarine Blue
- Cobalt Blue
- Royal Blue
- Cerulean Blue
- Viridian
For the beautiful evening shadows, I also enjoy using several ready-made violets:
- Lavender
- Cobalt Violet
- Permanent Violet
These colors make it much easier to capture the subtle violet atmosphere of late afternoon without overmixing the paint.
One Color I Never Leave at Home
If I had to choose one favorite color for summer painting, it would be Indian Yellow.
It creates a beautiful warm underpainting and gives the painting an inner glow before the first highlights are even added.
Mixed with Titanium White, it produces soft, creamy light that is perfect for sunlit sand, glowing skin tones, and warm reflections.
It has become one of the most valuable colors on my summer palette.
Final Thoughts
Every summer evening teaches me the same lesson. The sea is never simply blue. The sand is never simply yellow. Shadows are never just gray. Everything is transformed by light. As painters, our job isn't to copy nature. Our job is to paint that light. So don't paint the beach. Don't paint the sea.
Paint the light—and everything else will naturally fall into place!
Continue Your Plein Air Journey
Reading about plein air painting is one thing.
Standing on the beach with an easel, watching the light change minute by minute, and learning how to capture those fleeting moments is something entirely different.
Every summer I host Plein Air Retreats in Greece, where I teach artists how to paint the sea, sunlit beaches, figures, and ever-changing light directly from nature.
Together we'll explore beautiful coastal locations, paint during the golden hours of the day, and focus on the same principles you've just read about—strong value relationships, warm and cool color harmony, confident brushwork, and, above all, learning to see light.
Whether you're a beginner or an experienced painter, you'll receive personal guidance in a relaxed and inspiring atmosphere surrounded by the beauty of the Greek coastline.
If you'd like to experience the magic of plein air painting and learn to paint different lighting conditions from life, I'd love to welcome you to one of my upcoming painting retreats in Greece.
More details here : Greece Plein Air Retreat 2027
