2nd Stage In Painting an Ocean Wave with a Sandy Beach in Oil Paint

At this stage in the seascape oil painting of an ocean wave and a sandy beach, I have completed the initial block-in of the ocean wave and the beach. Basically I have covered the canvas with paint. I am trying to follow my pencil sketch except I am using color. Below the pencil sketch shows the placement of everything in the painting and it also shows the values. The 2nd stage does not have any detail but I try to put as much of the colors in that I anticipate using in later stages of this oil painting seascape. Also I can see areas at this stage where I need to change the values. I will continue working this weekend on the beach painting so check back next week to see how it progresses.

Piping Plovers and their Beach Nesting Area

Image via Wikipedia

While on a walk at the beach I noticed the roped off area and the wire cage enclosures for the piping plover nests. As I continued walking I noticed an adult piping plover and 3 little chicks running on the sand. I knew the piping plover was on the endangered list and there have been efforts to increase their numbers. Besides that I did not know too much about the little birds.

As I continued walking I came upon a young woman writing in a notepad and looking through binoculars. She told me monitoring the piping plovers was her summer job and that she had recently graduated with a masters in biology. She explained that they put the wire cage over the nests to help protect the eggs from predators(gulls, fox, dogs, cats, raccoons). She also described how the plovers can be frightened by people and especially dogs. We were excited to see a couple nests with 3 or 4 eggs on the sand. Sometimes a predator will get the eggs and the plover can have another 3 to 4 eggs about a month later. It takes about 24 days for the new chicks to fly.
After learning many new facts about the piping plover I left the beach with a greater understanding of why the beach areas are roped off during the summer months. I hope other people will read the signs and keep their dogs away from the plover nesting areas.

I'm planning an oil or acrylic painting of the plovers and their nests, they are cute little birds.