Here in Cassis with the waves rolling in - the Mediterranean is coming to greet us.
I decided to come out here because I needed this. I needed the sea, the water, to be out here while the sun was setting and warming my skin. Being in here and out in nature has a way of releasing us from all that drags us down and pulls us away, and leading us to a place of serenity and calm. This then gives us power, or force to look at everything else with a different eye.
I wanted to share with you a gorgeous Van Gogh painting that inspired me to come to the sea and paint. The painting is entitled "Seascape at Sainte-Maries-de-la-Mer", at a nearby Mediterranean village in 1888. In this painting, Vincent danced with the waves, using greens, blues and raw siennas all coming together with little brushstrokes moving here and there, taking your eye in with the fold of the wave. But, he felt that he needed some red to answer all of those greens and blues, so he put a stroke of red on the boat, but it wasn't quite enough, so he painted his signature in Cadmium Red Medium with a warm accent under his signature.
Today I see how the cliff is being reflected in the Ultramarine Blues of the water. So I have warm tones given to me by nature itself. Nature is my catalyst and I enter into it, and then I allow my own inner poetry to come forward from what I feel and receive from nature. Today it's all about receiving and letting it change me, and you are part of my dance.