Radiant Coastal Dune Impressionism
Dune Glow is an original 6" × 8" pastel-on-paper painting by contemporary New England landscape and maritime artist Sandra Kavanaugh.
This luminous plein-air work captures late-afternoon light as it moves across a coastal dune system. Rolling sandbanks, glowing ridgelines, and subtle shifts in shadow emphasize the shoreline’s sculptural forms and changing atmosphere.
Key Details
Title: Dune Glow
Artist: Sandra Kavanaugh
Medium: Pastel on paper
Dimensions: 6" × 8" horizontal format
Subject: Coastal seascape / sunlit sand dunes and ridge
Technical Details and Style
- Medium: Professional-grade soft pastels on textured fine art paper.
- Technique: Layered scumbling and soft directional strokes create the dune’s sunlit texture. Bright highlights along the ridges suggest direct afternoon light, while loose blending across the slopes evokes wind-shaped sand.
- Style: Contemporary Impressionism with plein-air influence, emphasizing natural light, coastal atmosphere, and subtle color transitions over photographic precision.
- Composition: A horizontal layout is shaped by rolling sand slopes that move diagonally across the scene. A sharply defined dune ridge near the center-right adds structure and guides the eye past sunlit beach grass toward the soft, layered hill or forest line beyond.
- Color palette: Warm peach, cream, and sandy gold illuminate the dunes, balanced by lavender, violet, and icy blue shadows beneath a soft pink-and-blue sky.
