The Story of "Afterglow" — Brent Estabrook

“Afterglow” was created on 9th street and The Strand in Manhattan Beach looking north with the Malibu peninsula in the distance. This was the first Impressions painting created/inspired during the beautiful glowing light just before dusk. Within this painting, I also wanted to capture the sereneness of Manhattan Beach with the eternal presences and energy of the ocean waves.

The Story of “Afterglow”

The was day 2 of ultimately 9 days to complete. I painted from approximately noon to sunset each day.

The painting began from the emanating light of the setting sun and consists of some of the most vibrant, bold and pure oil paint pigments: cadmium orange to cadmium yellow to cobalt turquoise light to cobalt blueish turquoise.

The first brushstrokes and color began at the horizon on the very left of the painting. The green within the sky, which I experience often, is a result of the cadmium yellow mixing with the cobalt turquoise light.

Another essential aspect of this painting is the waves as they pass, weave and crash amongst the pier’s pilings.

These waves were one of the most challenging aspects to create because of the layering, intermingling and weaving of long sweeping waves through the piling.

Since I generally paint back to front, the beach was one of the last things I painted and because it compositionally makes up a large portion of the painting, I wanted to make sure it contained as much interest and intention as the rest of the painting. Instead of quickly painting the beach in a few large and bold brushstrokes, I wanted to convey a beach that earlier was full of life: foot prints, wagon trails, lifeguard truck tracks and, most importantly, a drawn out teddy bear in the sand.

Although possibly subtle in appearance, the beach was another very challenging aspect of this painting. It took a mixture of small and delicate perspective-respecting marks to completely abstract and bold brushstrokes to create this beach.

The final day creating “Afterglow”.