Big Storm, Big Waves

We just had a monster storm in Maine with rain & 90 mph winds here along the coast. We had 7.5 " rain in the coastal plain over night, inland they got hit with heavy snow. The big wind and the water combination was wild! 150 roads were closed in our county.

Two days after the storm departed it still kept sending bands of snow and rain in off the ocean. I went over to Israel's Head in Ogunquit to paint the surf. This is the surf at the mouth of Perkins Cove as the tide is going out.

There is usually some wave action on the rocks on the Marginal Way. Today it was quite lively and even a bit too rough for the usual surfers. Nobody was out on their boards. It started to snow heavily so I moved inside the car to do some sketches.

View of surf hitting the point from Perkins Cove. This one is watercolor pencil & watercolor on 90 lb. paper.

The point awash in foam. Never seen so much beautiful white frothy foam - made you want to jump in it. This sketch is ink, water color pencil & watercolors on 125 lb. paper.

More rocks and foamy waves.

A big one hits the ledge and delivers a sloppy foamy crash.

After the foamy crash, now pulling back into the briny deep.

The following day the clouds were beginning to break up so I went to Moody Beach and Wells to see what was happening. The weather was better - no sideways snow so I could set up and get a painting in before dark.

It was low tide and still the surf was crashing.

Here's a quick wave sketch I did.

As I packed up the sun was peaking through tiny openings in the clouds as more of that big storm headed out to sea. Its really nice living& painting in this land of big sky, big water and big weather!