Israel Yang Art Blog: Iona Beach series

I stayed at my parent's place for 2 nights and used it as a base to paint at Iona beach for 3 days, since their place is quite close to it.
Last month I did a 6" x 8" sketch of this view at Iona beach. There was a lot I loved about this view.

Water way at Iona Island - oil on panel - 6" x 8"

So I decided to do a bigger one at 9" x 12" at about the same time of day. I widened the composition a little as you can see, to show more the expanse of the land.
I was sitting on a tree stump, that gave me a higher vantage point. It took 2 sessions over 2 days to complete. The first day I painted until about 8:30 pm, the sun was going down and the tide was coming in and the tree stump was about flooded, I had to leave before I would get stranded. I went back the next day and finished it.
I would like to do an even bigger version of this, but it will not be easy. The view faces east, and I like the front lit look. While painting these smaller paintings I could use my own shadow on the surface to judge the colours, and I can't do that for a bigger painting. Maybe a studio painting?

Water way at Iona Island - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

In this series, I was enamored not by the sky, nor the mountains, but by the land. I wanted the land to be the main subject. Normally I wasn't very inspired by flat landscape, but during those 2.5 days they were magical to me.