Stormy Seas

William Ritschel had a unique sense of the sea and a strong versatility in capturing its many moods. His pictures often depict the pounding surf as it violently crashes against the rocky cliffs of the Pacific. He was sensitive to the etheral setting sun over the horizon in the misty atmosphere of marine haze. He employed a brilliant rainbow of color in his palette and strong energetic brush strokes, which together evoked the power of the sea and brilliance of sunlight. He lived and worked on the waters edge in his famous Carmel studio called 'Castel a Mare', where he studied the sea until "he made himself a master of a marine color-magic..." ("California Artists", Pictorial California and the Pacific, May 1930)