Freedom, joy, happiness, and hope — Ocean Breeze takes its viewers to a better place. Original painting by Steve Henderson; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

The story of the painting, Ocean Breeze, by Steve Henderson

This particular sentence is one we regularly hear from viewers of Ocean Breeze, a fusion of color, warmth, movement, sunset, and light. The open edition licensed print of this work at Great Big Canvas consistently posts number 1 in Steve’s art sold at the site, and in the broad, general category of Figurative Art, Ocean Breeze sells in the top 2 percent.

Ocean Breeze is filled with warm reds, golds, and oranges dancing with cool blues and lavenders. One can feel the mist on the breeze, the warmth of the sun’s rays on one’s shoulders, the gentle touch of the waves on bare feet.

“I wanted to capture a sense of freedom and joy,” Steve remarks on this piece, ” and the place, to me, that pulses with those feelings is the seashore. People are happy when they walk along the beach.”

As a fine artist with a broad background in commercial illustration, Steve has always

Catching the Breeze, featuring the same color palette, makes a nice companion to Ocean Breeze. Original painting sold; licensed open edition prints available at Great Big Canvas.

enjoyed painting the human form, and in Ocean Breeze — as in all of his works of young women and children — Steve focuses on the postive elements of joy, happiness, meditation, thought, freedom, innocence, and hope.

“There are a lot of definitions about what art is,” Steve says. “But one aspect that is frequently discredited or looked over is art’s ability to provide hope and celebrate beauty. Too often we are assaulted by darkness, gloom, depression, and despair — and we’re told that this represents ‘real life.’

“While these are aspects of real life, so are their opposites, and those opposites are what I choose to paint.”

Ocean Breeze embodies joy, peace, freedom, and hope.

The original painting is gallery wrapped — meaning that it is ready to hang on the wall without the need for a frame — and is available through Steve Henderson Fine Art.

Read and subscribe to the entire Start Your Week with Steve newsletter.

Check out Steve’s artwork at Steve Henderson Fine Art. His original paintings are affordable; his licensed open edition prints are even more so; and his Santa and Holiday works spread the joy of Christmas all year round.

If you are a manufacturer who would like to use Steve’s artwork on your products, please contact his agents, Matt Appelman (matt.appelman@artlicensing.com). You can see Steve’s Art Licensing page here.

We encourage you, also, to check out Steve and Carolyn’s products at Amazon.com:

Live Happily on Less: 52 Ways to Renovate Your Life and Lifestyle (paperback and digital book)

Grammar Despair: Quick, simple solutions to problems like, “Do I say Him and Me or He and I?” (paperback and digital book)

Step by Step Watercolor Success — DVD digital workshop for the beginning and intermediate watercolorist.