Two Megs - 2

I like all things "fish."  I'm a Pisces; I truly am "that" in a lot of ways. Ha ha. I eat fish often - usually 3-4 times a week.  I love to swim.   I crave being at the ocean, yet I am enthralled with all water related scenes.   

A favorite painting subject is fishing and fishing boats.  Does it stem from my being a Pisces or is it my ancestral Newfoundland fishing family roots?  Maybe both together?

Anyhow, I painted this exact scene a couple of years ago en plein air, and it sold right away so I decided to enjoy it again, this time from the photo.  The historic and enormous Boston Fish pier is the backdrop and the fishing boat called "Two Megs" in the foreground is picking up the sunshine.

Two Megs II

Blue Crab Circle

Blue Crab Ring

This painting was an imaginary design.   I positioned my crabs in a circle, trying to inject some variety in both shapes and color.   Crabs typically sink down into the sand and the swirling water around them can create sandy ripples.   In this painting the mounds of sand emphasize this curved armature.   The canvas itself was an odd, almost square shape and I thought having a circular design was a suitable offset.

It's summer and I love having Cadmium Orange on my palette .... it is a good color for mixing summer light, and of course blue is its complementary color. 

Fishing Off the Beach at Sunrise

Fishing from the Beach at Sunrise

Walking at the shore, it's common to see the little fish jumping out of the water in groups; bigger fish just behind them I assume - bluefish or stripers maybe.    This fisherman must have spotted the same dark swirl in the water.   He demonstrated just how beach fishing is done...wading into the surf, casting as far as possible with his long ocean rod, then walking up to the tideline to place it in the rod holder.   Yes, a beautiful scene for a painting!

The undertone for this painting was a pretty mid-value blue, sure to be a good complement for the reddish/orange sunrise.   At one point, this blue undertone had me thinking that I might not even have to paint the beach houses that receded into the distance.   Once the primary wave was painted though, its darkness created a problem with the darkness of the houses by contrast, ie that original blue undertone was too light.  So I added hints of shadow and rooflines.   The obvious center of interest rightfully gets its attention, but the beautiful beach at dawn is a perfectly colorful backdrop, even with a crashing, three foot surf.

Painting and Sketching in Tropical Paradise

In the beautiful island country of Jamaica, the delights were many: people, music, balmy breezes, cuisine and most of all, a rainbow of vibrant and colorful scenes.   I longed to paint with my oils, but this vacation was designed around the theme of "R&R."  Dealing with wet oil paintings in a beautiful hotel setting would have been too scary, and frankly stressful.    My fallback was watercolor and sketching, adequate substitutes and actually good for brushing up on different skills.    

There were many talented musicians strolling along the beach.  They periodically pausing to perform a few songs for tips.   They stayed long enough to be captured in pencil, which I share here.  Sketching on the fly was good practice, especially for a plein air painter like myself.

My favorite musician was Donnavan Darymple, who also performed some evenings at the hotel

We snorkeling along a reef about a mile from the hotel with local guides.   Back ashore, painting the underwater world with watercolor seemed pretty natural. Although I do find watercolor challenging, letting the wet colors run together was fun, as was playing with the masking fluid.      

Underwater I

Underwater II

Underwater III

Bullfrog

The frog is a New England "feller" painted from a photograph.   I actually painted this one first, as I was getting re-accustomed to watercolor.   As you can see, I approached it very much like an oil painting (covering the whole surface, layering, accentuating the darks).

Under the Shade Tree

One very nice aspect of the hotel's beach was that it had a large swathe of shade trees.    There was no problem shifting our chairs from shade to sunshine and back again.   This painting was done from under the tree where I spent most of my vacation.

Watercolor by Paul Thomas

 Last but not least is a painting done by Jamaican Watercolorist Paul Thomas.  He and I had a nice conversation at our beach where he was set up selling his beautiful depictions of the local scenes.   His hummingbird paintings were amazing - I wish I had taken a photo!    I gave him a block of watercolor paper as it had come to my attention that getting supplies on the island was not easy.   He most graciously painted the scene shown here.   He sure knows how to mix that beautiful turquoise that I was having a hard time achieving!  Thank you Paul!