Thursday, February 13, 2020

When Color is a Gift

Yellow Rowboat in Christmas Cove 8"x10"

Sometimes for a boat painting, I change the color of the boat. And sometimes, the original color is such a gift that I use it as is. That's what happened with this little yellow rowboat in Christmas Cove.

When we come into a harbor on our boat, I’m already scouting for paintable vessels, big and small. I look for an appealing shape, but color always grabs my attention first. I use the opportunity of going ashore in our dinghy to circle my favorites and take photos from every angle. It's great having a skilled dinghy driver, which lets me focus on taking pictures.



Back home, I have to choose between the photos, and sometimes it's tough. I'm looking for a good light and dark pattern, nice reflections, and of course color. Then I crop.

This is what it looked like part way through the process.
Scouting for a good boat and photographing is the research. Choosing the image, cropping, and painting is solving the puzzle of my vision of the painting. I love a puzzle.

P.S. You might ask about the color of inside of the boat. In this painting I changed it, to draw the eye to the waterline of the boat (the darkest/lightest edge) rather than the top of the stern which would've been the darkest/lightest edge if the inside of the boat was white.