I've been working on this landscape for a few months and it hadn't been popping. One of the challenges I gave myself was to not really have a good reference photo or any for this. This landscape lives in my mind from experience at the coast, my sunset chasing addiction and my love for Oregon.
The past week I pulled it off the "not sure how to fix this" wall, and intuitively started playing with it again. It started to come alive. It needed that salmon colored sunset burst right under the marine layer of clouds, the estuary that winds around to the sea and the way the sun kisses the trees but the viewer only sees the glow of that sunset against them. I love this scene. I imagine my beach house right behind the creek and up the hill. Maybe there is a bench for my older days so I can simply enjoy the estuary sunset and not have to go all the way to the beach.
I chose a romantic palette because of the feeling of these sunsets is just that, a warm glow, all of the colors look like there is a pink filter form the light and diffused with the marine clouds that roll in on those summer evenings, sweeping the day away.
