Painting en Plein Air in the Dunes at Scheveningen outside the Hague

These pictures are from the dunes on the beach at Scheveningen just outside of the Hague. This week, I've been biking out to the dunes to paint out in the fresh air. Although the temperatures have been in the 30s, it's been great. With the right gear I'm warm enough, and it's a joy to be outside rather than feeling cooped up by the weather, inside a cold house no less. Today's painting was done in the sleet and the rain, but the reward was great. Every day the water is a different color, and today it was a faded turquise. Turns out that the oil paint goes on just fine, even in sleety rain.

The pictures are from a couple of days ago in slightly better weather, and show the skyline of the Hague, the vista I painted, and the easel with painting.

A day at the beach

A day out painting at the beach, and I saw a fox, pictured.

I painted for 6 hours or so, enjoying the view of changing clouds and the cold, stiff wind off of the North Sea. The wind shook the canvas so hard that precision in painting was impossible. I kept changing the painting to match the changing clouds - maybe I should have brought a video camera instead of a canvas. My finished work has leaves, dirt, and sand in it from the wind.