2019-05-01 The Artists Magazine

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different the waves are until you wait
for eight or 10 or 12 of them to go by,”
she says. “It’s an experience that takes
a lot of patience and a kind of Zen
attention. The channel off Santa
Barbara, for example, is deep, so when
a wave comes in, there’s a lot of water
under it, which results in a big wave
when it crashes. Waves there are dif-
ferent from those at a west-facing
beach, like Pismo, which has a long,
slow, sandy shingle. It’s so gentle that
20 or 30 little waves come in continu-
ously. There’s a tremendous variety of
water conditions along the coast.”
Her brushstrokes in End of Day,
Forney’s Cove (opposite) depict several
distinct waveforms as they wash up
on the beach and crash onto the
rocks. Small whitecaps sift the
smooth sand in the foreground, while
rigid vertical strokes create leaping
surf at the breakwater beyond.
Meanwhile, calm water, such as a
lake or estuary, presents a different

challenge. “It’s really about vertical ele-

ments,” Burtt says. “That’s essentially

what happens when you have a reflec-

tion. The breezier the day, the more

the reflections extend, but they extend

in a vertical fashion.” In Midday on the

Slough (above), light from the sky

extends through the center of the can-

vas, creating a strong vertical shaft

that widens into subtle ripples at the

bottom of the painting. The vertical

reflection is intersected by violet-blue

horizontal strokes that represent wind

on the water’s surface.

EMBRACING THE

WEATHER AND LIGHT

CONDITIONS

Cold and wind don’t deter Burtt from

working; in fact, she appreciates that

adverse weather conditions create

especially exciting conditions for her

paintings. “I love the fog because,

much like a Japanese woodcut, you

get just a single value of the closeup

stuff and then the next value that’s

closest,” she says. “I love the winter

storms that we get on the Santa

Barbara coast in January—the king

tides, big waves and wind coming in,

along with storm clouds.”

Her five-panel painting, Fog, Sun

and Tides (pages 74–75), depicts

several weather conditions at a single

location, using a consistent horizon

line to unify the overall composition.

Originally painted on location as a

maquette, Burtt enlarged the painting

in her studio for its installation as a

public artwork at a local hospital.

The coastal environment provides

Burtt not only with variety in terms

of inspiring water and land forms, but

also with unusual directions of light

that illuminate cliffs, sand, clouds and

waves. A turn along the Santa Barbara

coastline creates beaches that are

south-facing or west-facing, while the

nearby Channel Islands offer views

that are north-facing.

Midday on the Slough

acrylic on linen panel, 20x30