Painting Boats

Students are often intimidated by the prospect of painting boats. And with good reason! Not only is a boat a complex arrangement of compound curves, it also tends to move - even on a windless day. The boat you were working on so hard suddenly shifts, and all the curves with it.

On the way back from St Andrews yesterday, I had the opportunity to stop awhile on Deer Island and to paint for myself. On Saturday morning, there wasn't much going on at the Stuartown Wharf. I found this one boat, all by itself, which was a perfect model. The calm was so dead that the mosquitoes, without any wind to push them away, were thick down by the beach. Even so, something made the boat move, first this way and then that. Perhaps the mosquitoes were toying with it? At any rate, I was able to sketch in quickly the simple lines and to work with the movement.

"Stuartown Morning"
8x10, oil, en plein air
SOLD