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Dream Waves Wave paintings

Water

Sunset Wave in Kauai, watercolor on Arches watercolor paper

Water covers about two-thirds of our planet, we know more about the surface of the moon than we know about the expansive world under the surface of our Oceans. There are many dichotomies associated with water, it can be calm and still mirroring the sky above or chaotic and menacing as in a hurricane. It can be crystal-clear or turbid, warm and inviting, or cold and harsh. Nothing embodies the attributes of water in all its grandeur like an ocean wave.

Underwater Wave, Ink & watercolor on Arches watercolor paper

Wave

I envision a wave as a dynamic sculpture composed of water, a moving art piece of nature displaying the raw power of the ocean, ultimately born from the prodigious and seemingly­ limitless energy of our sun. From our native star radiation warms our atmosphere and drives massive weather systems, producing powerful storms. Waves are born in these foundries of turbulence and race each other from the epicenter to the nearest land mass thousands of miles away to meet their demise at some rocky point or sandy beach. Swells come from all directions; North, South, East, and West bearing volleys of waves, shaped by the seafloor (bathythermy) that crash onto the land in an apotheosis of water spray and foam.

Turbulence

Turbulence, watercolor on Arches watercolor paper

These moving sculptures of water move rapidly swelling up into a mountainous wall of water, their surface ebbing and flowing in the turbulence and throw themselves against rocks and sand , dying instantly releasing their energy in a sequence of fury ! Section by section waves play out this pattern, perfectly synched into the rhythms of our planetary weather systems , yet each a unique work of energy and beauty. Two of my paintings, Cyclops and Turbulence capture this drama played out in water, rock and sand. Cyclops offers us a glimpse into the maw of a breaking wave, a look straight into the beast’s eye, Turbulence captures an instantaneous image of a wave’s surface, plastic flowing graceful in its violence. Like the ocean itself the energy engendered in these paintings inspired the randomness and chaos of watercolors interacting on a watercolor stage, capturing the drama of the moment. Turbulence graphically describes the chaotic expenditure of potential energy manifested in a kinetic composition of colliding water .

Patterns

Patterns, watercolor on Arches watercolor paper

in contrast, Patterns is a detached view down on a beach to read the tapestry of water shaping the land as waves break on beaches throughout the globe. Through the transparency of shallow waters waves shape the sea floor leaving a changing fingerprint on its surface.

Vortex

Vortex, Ink & watercolor on Arches watercolor paper

Being artifacts of nature, waves offer us many ways to witness their beauty and power. Some of these vistas afford us an intimate view of a wave in space and time. Vortex represents one of those moments inside the tube looking down the line of a cresting wave witnessing the menacing white cloud of spray. Where the lip of the wave crashes onto the surface of the water beyond in the upper right corner of the painting one can see the relative safety and calm of the shore. Tubular affords us a temporary glimpse from inside the hollow face of a wave towards the opening as the massive canopy of water prepares to collapse on itself. Walled-Up presents an approaching wave as a mountainous wall of water, from the p.o.v. of a surfer paddling desperately to make it over, or under , whatever it takes.

Reefs

Reef Break, Ink & watercolor on Arches watercolor paper

Reef breaks are a world unto themselves; not dry land but rather an intermediate world of coral and water that is its own eco-system. Teeming with life, these living gardens of limestone create some of the most perfect waves. Reef Break presents to us a vista over a coral reef into the heart of the sea. Ocean + Sky offers us a glimpse into two worlds. Where the deep ocean meets the edge of a coral reef is where water is hurled up into the sky, in an offering to the gods as well as the adventurous surfer. In this painting both the dynamic fury on the surface belies the calmness of the coral reef below, the expression Chi, the embodiment of the dynamic and serene, the Ying and Yang of a reef break. Over the Reef offers us an aerial perspective of wave breaking . The crystalline waters act like a lense, refracting light to create an optical illusion that distorts the clearly-seen features of the reef surface below.

Exotic Locations

Indo, watercolor on Arches watercolor

In the South China Sea lies the archipelago nation of Indonesia, in the expansive waters exist thousands of small islands. These islands teem with remote breaks festooned with rock formations. The interplay of swell, and coral reef make for surreal waves in an exotic panorama. Indo captures such a wave set against a stunning rock formation are a powerful, graceful composition, a sculptural interplay of rock and water.Another archipelago lies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in one of its remote regions. The Hawaiian island chain receives swells from almost all directions, in winter from storms that batter the Aleutian chain to the North and from the South from typhoons telegraphing swells up throughout Polynesia. On the northern coast of Kauai epic reef breaks receive swells that churn out perfect hollow tubes that crash upon the outer edge of a reef, thus the names for two of the most prodigious north shore wave machines, Cannons and Tunnels. Sunset Wave in Kauai offers us a panoramic vista out to sea greeting the arriving waves set against the approaching clouds bathed in twilight. Mexico and Central America offer scores of hidden beaches, some pumping out epic waves with machine-like perfection. Somewhere South depicts such a scene, drenched in an ethereal light with an arid foreground that frames the landscape of a point break in full swell mode with shafts of light emanating from a sun hidden by luminous clouds.It is visual poetry in motion!

Cold Water

Winter Wave, watercolor on Arches watercolor paper

Cold-water waves hold their own singular allure, they are generally larger than their warm-water counterparts. Driven by Arctic storms, long-period swells drive sets of waves thousands of miles south on both coasts of the continental U.S.. I conceived of Winter Wave as a graphic piece, a stark tableau of an Eastern Pacific slab somewhere in the central California coast. The saturated blue sky offsets the green surface of the breaking wave with the choppy water in the foreground. First light, like twilight, is a magical time, especially on the eastern seaboard when the Atlantic storms generate swells that bring undulating tubes uncharted territory for the adventurous and the fortunate surfer. With Dawn Patrol, I intended to depict the early-morning light in saturated hues of yellow, orange, red, purple and blue capturing diaphanous waves set ablaze by the dawn. Psychedelic Wave captures a rapturous moment when the fading light of the sun reflects and refracts off the clouds and moisture-laden atmosphere to provide one of nature’s most vivid and surreal light shows !

Under water

Underwater Wave, Ink & watercolor on Arches watercolor paper

The seemingly tranquil world beneath a wave is in reality, a place inhabited by powerful unseen forces. Currents and tides rule this realm, as anyone who has had to duck dive or faced a gnarly wipe-out, and the ensuing hold-down can attest to, yet it is also a window into a mysterious and wondrous place that we can only temporarily explore. Underwater Wave captures this moment as the roiling column of water passes by.

Psychedelic Wave, watercolor on Arches watercolor paper

In painting this series I was inspired to express those qualities of waves that I connect to, that imbue me with feelings of awe and wonderment at a natural phenomenon that challenges surfers the world over, as an invitation and warning.Perhapse, in this manner we can all appreciate and protect the ocean waters and shores upon which all waves break.

Tubular, watercolor on Arches watercolor paper
Created By
Stephen M. Cruz
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Credits:

Dream Waves by Stephen M. Cruz