Kathleen Elsey | Plein Air Paintings | California Fauve

“Swimming”   20” x 20”
Previously exhibited 2011 Santa Barbara Maritime Museum

I wanted to create the feeling of swimming in the ocean with my girlfriends on a hot summer day. But I wanted to be less representational. So with that in mind, I began painting strokes and shapes in cool blues and whites. But I needed some red and yellow, so what the heck. Just put some color in. I was using fiber paste to get texture and also heavy gel matt. To get even more texture, I used extra heavy Liquitex white for the line of white across the painting. A big wave overtaking us? Three months later, still wanted the painting to have more depth so experimented with heavy gel gloss (1/2 big jar) slathered 1/8” overall. Now to let it dry. Right now it is a beautiful square of white meringue. It should dry clear. Looks like it will never dry clear. After 6 hours, it is still too foggy white. Finally after three days, it dried the way I intended.