I gasped and my jaw dropped when I saw my daughter’s photo of Muir Beach taken on California’s rocky coastline. My daughter, Honorée, recently took this aerial drone view for her wedding photography and videography company (wanderingducksphotoandfilm.com). Its diagonal composition and color contrasts immediately grabbed me. I was taken by the waves’ swirling action, blue tones, and indigo shadows against the mauves of the rocky shoreline and the rusty native plants.

The photo started calling my name and I knew I had to try my hand at capturing it in watercolor. Once again, it’s utterly mind-bending to see how we are inspired by the views of others. I started a painting the same day, dropping whatever else I was working on.

The beauty of watercolor is that the movement of the pigment on moistened paper spreads its own magic. To help establish the water’s highlights, I added web-like shapes and bits of masking fluid (Pēbēo Drawing Gum) over the white paper and later over lighter colored shapes. Then, I just let the watercolor flow. Away the paint traveled in eddies of its own making.

“Once again, it’s utterly mind-bending to see how we are inspired by the views of others”

Anne-Cressey McGraw

I felt a lot of the water’s energy as I painted from the photograph. The same wind blew on my face that was blowing the vegetation and carrying the spray. A bit of sandy grit was in my mouth. Oh, yes, I was there, too, at the same stupendous scene.

Drone view keeps on inspiring

I was still so intrigued by the drone view photo’s composition and colors that I set right about painting another one. This time, I did a surrealistic version of the plant subject matter against swirling blues. I’m tickled that unless I had narrated the relationship between the two watercolors, you may never have known of it.

Using a photographer’s image as a source of inspiration is fine as long as your art is not a copy of the photograph. In a separate post, I go into more details on avoiding copyright infringement. I had no concerns about my art being a copy, but checked with my daughter for good measure. Naturally, she gave me the green light to publish and use “Muir Beach I” without copyright infringement.

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