Sea, Green and Brown, Maine

This unusually somber watercolor must have been painted indoors on a dark day or possibly at nightfall, when the sea appeared almost black. Marin captured this view from the glass porch of the Cape Split house at high tide, when the large triangular rock known as the tide marker was barely visible; the tip of a coastal ledge juts into the picture at the left. The artist here used directional wiping, blending in opaque watercolor. Movement and brightness were introduced by scraping away pigment to reveal the white paper, conjuring the breaking surf playing about the submerged rocks.