86 



THE OPAL SEA 



Cold colors 

 in the 

 tropics. 



The Quality 

 of light. 



Different 

 tunes. 



pie ever since daylight. The sea, too, is purple, and 

 growing more so with the darkening of the light. The 

 water is perfectly flat, and the indefinite clouds are mir- 

 rored below, but with a deeper tone than in the originals. 

 The shore and hills are purplish also, the air is mauve 

 color; the very light seems to be tinged with this hue as 

 though the only rays of the sun that got through the 

 clouds were blues and violets. There is a lilac envelope 

 about earth and sea and sky. Such an effect if repro- 

 duced in painting would hardly meet with acceptance. 

 People would insist that it ' isn't true to nature ' 

 — meaning, of course, that the only truth is the most 

 obvious truth." 



The quality of light — that is light as modi- 

 fied by atmosphere and temperature — is re- 

 sponsible for all these beautiful tones of color 

 in the sea, sky, and air. There are days when 

 it spreads a purple chill, when the clouds 

 are purple and the air is cold blue, and 

 the water a mixture of them all. Then there 

 are other days quite the opposite of this when 

 a rosy hue is filtered through the thin film- 

 sheets of the stratus and a flush of rose is in 

 the air and on the sea. And, again, there are 

 other days when the Indian summer of the 

 woodlands seems to be upon the waters and the 

 hue is golden blue or even yellow. More fre- 

 quently, of course, is the familiar silver tone 

 that accompanies a slight mist or lifting fog. 



