The strip of shore that only exists at low tide: what the water leaves behind and takes back twice a day.
Thread: Seen at night, lit only by lamps, windows and signs.
Constraints
Format
Quarter sheets, 11 × 15 in (28 × 38 cm), all landscape.
Palette
Three pigments only: French ultramarine (PB29), burnt sienna (PBr7) and yellow ochre (PY43).
Process
No pencil underdrawing: start with the brush.
Composition
One strong diagonal in each composition.
Progression
Literal to abstract: The images move from close observation toward pure shape and color.
Pieces
Stranded Boat (Observed) — Paint a boat resting on its side, waiting for the water, observed directly, with full detail.
Observed: Tide Pool — Paint a tide pool with one small creature in it, observed directly, with full detail.
Mooring Rope, Simplified — Simplified to large shapes: a mooring rope lying slack across the mud.
Study for Footprints — A line of footprints already filling with water, simplified to large shapes.
Shells, Simplified — Simplified to large shapes: a scatter of broken shells and one whole one.
Seaweed — Paint a tangle of seaweed draped over a rock, flattened into pattern.
Study for Channel — The last channel of water running back to the sea, flattened into pattern.
Five Shapes: Wet Sand — Ripples in wet sand holding the sky, reduced to five shapes.
Stranded Boat, Five Shapes — Return to a boat resting on its side, waiting for the water, reduced to five shapes.
Tide Pool, Five Shapes — Paint a tide pool with one small creature in it again, reduced to five shapes.
Abstract: Mooring Rope — Paint a mooring rope lying slack across the mud again, as pure color and rhythm.
Footprints, Abstract — Paint a line of footprints already filling with water again, as pure color and rhythm.
Statement starter
In Low Water, I paint the strip of shore that only exists at low tide, seen at night, lit only by lamps, windows and signs. Across twelve watercolors made over three months, the images move from close observation toward pure shape and color.
Schedule
Week 1: Research and thumbnails: three or four small sketches for every piece, then test the format and palette.
Week 2: Two test pieces. Adjust the constraints now, not halfway through.
Weeks 3–11: Production, in the order of the progression — about 1.3 pieces a week.
Week 7: Midpoint review: pin everything up together and redo or cut the weakest piece.
Week 12: Final edit: rework one or two pieces and choose the hanging order.
Week 13: Photograph or scan everything, settle the titles and finish the statement.