Cohasset Harbor Lobstermen

You will not find a more picturesque spot than Cohasset Harbor.   I spent two rainy days painting under a shelter right next to the lobster boat launch.   I produced the first painting on morning one, a cool, raw day, perfect for not having to worry about moving shadows.    In fact at first what changed most was the direction of the boats.  When I arrived the tide was coming in and by the time I left, the tide was going out.  As a result, boats moored in the harbor reversed direction from my initial block in.


Lobsterman at Dock On a Rainy Day

I sketched in the scene with raw sienna via "same sizing" the landscape behind my canvas.   That means I took steps back to the furthest spot where I could still reach the canvas with my brush.  By peaking around either side of my canvas, I could match up all my horizontal landmarks as if my canvas just filled in that square within my field of vision.

Once my elements were sketched in, I mixed up a dark green for the terrain of the estate across the water to the left.     I also blocked in the dark docks and rock pilings on the right.  The sky was overcast so I made a big pile of sky grey made with titanium white, alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue.   I used this for the water as well as they seemed almost identical. 

During the course of my painting session, one of the lobstermen put on orange rubber overalls.   He stood there staring at his partner so I took the chance and painted him in quickly.  Above to the left is what the painting looked like after the plein air session, including the dirt that stuck to the wet paint when it blew over onto the ground as I packed up to leave.

Back in the studio I decided that the lobsterman with the orange overalls standing on the dock looked too stilted.    I had taken photos that captured some better action shots of the dock activity so I chose a different figure in motion and replaced orange overall guy with white rubber boots guy.   He is leaning back for leverage while dragging columns of traps from the pickup truck to the end of the pier.

Since the lobster traps have straight rectangular edges, I planned to make these strokes with my palette knife.   I lined up a row of mixed golds and yellows along with some cadmium green.  I scrapped up the paint onto my knife such that it looked like the photo at the left.   I made a single straight palette knife stroke which dragged out the different yellows from one edge of the lobster trap to the other.

The other challenge was this lobsterman's white boots, since no part of them were really white.   In the photo I worked from, the sun had made an appearance and lit up the boots.   For these two reasons (at least), the boots are probably not quite right. 

Lobsterman Dragging Traps on a Rainy Day

I welcome feedback.  For such a small plein air painting, this took a considerable amount of time.  One of the things I do like about it is that the lobsterman with traps is clearly the center of interest.  

 The "final" result is to the right.