Storm at Empire Village Beach – wave series

During a fierce storm, January 2021, Karl Zipser took a video of Lake Michigan waves at the Empire Village beach. We selected six frames for possible motifs. So far, I have painted four of the six frames (#1-4) as shown here:

Oil on wood panels, 24 x 24 in.

There is no standard wave. The boiling water choreographs different dances.

12 thoughts on “Storm at Empire Village Beach – wave series”

    1. Thank you, Barb, for your helpful comments while I was painting these waves. Also, thanks for the tip to clean oil paint of brushes with “the masters brush cleaner’. So far, I restored two gummed up brushes

  1. Birgit

    Fantastically terrific — I realize that this remark seems over the top, but it is not

    Your paintings are wonderful and are absolutely FANTASTIC

    I am so privileged to have some of your earlier works, and look forward to more

  2. You are mastering the ever changing energy of those magnificent waves , great series!

    1. Thanks, Cindy. Karl encouraged me to do a series rather than my usual one of a kind. At first, I was not sure that I liked the mute colors but after then I began to like painting them. As my neighbor-friend Jenny said: ‘In the actual paintings the water glows, just like in real life.”

  3. Incredible work, Birgit! I love seeing them together and hope one day you’ll exhibit them all so we can see them in person.
    I’ve seen lots of water paintings and yours are so unique… as if I’ve not really seen water and waves before.
    I spent much of my youth by the Atlantic. Your paintings bring back to me the visual and visceral experience of being next to the power of the water.

    1. Thank you, Susan. I too feel connected to water having grown up at the North Sea, lived on the Long Island Sound and now here on Lake Michigan.

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