Fort Independence in Fall

On this autumn day, the air was cool but the sun was still warm.   I wore the long white down coat so the extra moist and salty air of Boston Harbor wouldn't penetrate.  I set up on the far end of the long fishing pier on the north side of Fort Independence on Castle Island.    This freestanding pier on pilings juts out into the Harbor.  I'm thinking that the simplicity of this composition belies the activity all around me.  Fun to watch, but it required some focus to keep to the subject.   Jets were landing at Logan International Airport, cargo canisters were being moved on the docks, and tugboats, ferries and water rescue boats cut through the greenish blue waters.

Fort Independence in Fall - In Progress

It's good to simplify at the outset, with a line sketch for placement.  Next, I blocked in all the dark areas.   The shaded fort wall on the right was made from smooth but mottled granite slabs.   In the foreground, the roughly hewn granite pilings were even darker (wet plus shaded) and thick


Walking the Island

 with sea mosses and barnacles.   The sky was next - done plein air style - via a thick coating of cobalt and white applied with the palette knife.   Elements of middle values were next, the rolling green slopes of grasses, the distant fort wall, the golden grasses on top of the fort and the sea water. Finally I worked the lanterns, the iron fencing and the walkers. And as always, there was a constant flow of walkers on the upper and lower paths.  After all, that's what you do when you are in South Boston; you walk the island.