How to Paint a Sunset on a Lake | Inspired by Minnesota's Lakes

Learn how to paint a sunset on a lake with acrylics in this painting tutorial. Artist Ashley Krieger is traveling and painting in all 50 U.S. states. Today she takes you to Minnesota to capture a vibrant pink sunset reflected on a lake.  I hope you learn a lot and enjoy this video as she paints plein air. 

While we were in Minnesota we stayed at a relaxing place called Cass Lake. It's a large lake surrounded by forest with a sandy beach and clear water. It was mostly shallow. We could walk out in the middle of the lake with sand still under our toes. Minnows would kiss my feet and craw fish would hustle away as I walked out. The water was warm and I wanted to swim for hours, so that is what we did. We were out playing in the water still when the sun set and created this unforgettable bright pink glow on the water. I wanted to paint it of course so I could keep it in my memory forever, but I would miss the moment. So I decided to remember the pink and how it played on the water and capture what I could the next evening. This painting is a combination of both evening sunsets. I hope you can feel the calm I felt those evenings while enjoying this lake. ​

You can find the videos for each state she has traveled to thus far here. ​

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Learn to Paint your Own Sunset on a Lake

You can find the acrylic art supplies use here. I also used metallic gold and silver Liquitex heavy body acrylic paints. Watch the tutorial to see what colors I used and when. 

 watch the Video tutorial

How to Paint a Sunset on a Lake, Step by Step...

Step 1 - Paint the canvas pink with a flat wide brush, side to side, filling the entire canvas.

Step 2 - Paint gold in the sky to give an idea where the sun will set and the water meets it. 

Step 3- Paint the land on the horizon as a horizon line at the top of your canvas with a smaller flat brush. You can decide how much sky you want by changing the position of the horizon line. 

Step 4 - Paint the blue in the water from the sides of your canvas leaving pink in the center. Add the blue in your sky and blue streaks across the entire canvas horizontally like steps. 

Step 5 - Add more detail to the sky and match that detail like a mirror in the water

Step 6 - Paint the sun shining on the water with light gold and the waves in on the lower half of the canvas with darker blue

Thank you for watching!

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