Sailing on Racoon Strait

Oil on textured panel, 11" by 14", plein air. Racoon Strait is the 1 mile wide deep water passage between Tiburon Point and Angel Island on the bay side of Marin County. It is named for a British 26-gun sloop of war that was damaged off the coast of Oregon in 1814 and limped back to SF Bay and was repaired in Ayala Cove on this side of Angel Island. California was not a part of the US at that time, but this was during the War of 1812 and the sloop was probably protecting
British fur traders in the Northwest and West Coast of Canada. The sky is that gray color, not because of the usual fog (marine layer) but because of particulate matter in the air from our wildfires in N. California and not enough off shore wind to blow the smoke inland.

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Comment by Michael J. Severin on August 17, 2015 at 11:08: Stu, one more thing. Your foreground structure and island are to equal masses ..both fighting for attention ..with the island winning because of its very "weighty" dark value. Since I really do not think the island is your subject matter, maybe it should occupy a lessor amount of space then the foreground structure?

Comment by Michael J. Severin on August 17, 2015 at 10:50: Stu, I think everything works in this painting except the island. I think the dark values in the foreground elements are you value "key" to the rest of the painting.......about a value 2 or 3 it looks like? In this case, the island would be a couple of steps lighter in value then your "key" value. ...maybe a value 5? Then the sky and water would fit nicely as a value 9 (sky) and 7 (water). Your foreground pier would then have dark accents of value 1 or 2 ..as you have it now. So, to summarize, suggest you make the foreground your darkest value and "key" everything else to that.