More fishing boats

These are hanging, along with four more of my paintings, in a group show in Cape May; the show opens tomorrow.

Fishing boats

I had always been afraid to paint fishing boats: all that stuff rising from the deck.
But I tried one--just trying to paint what I saw simply and without feeling I had to include everything--and now I can't stop.

"Hazel"

(11x15)

More fishing boats. I feel like I've lost a little energy in this one, though there are parts of it I like.
I'm going to change subject matter for a bit and come back to the fishing boats later.

a little further ...

(11x15)
The problem, for me, with working in stages instead of rushing through to completion in one sitting is that I beging to lose heart: I get timid; every new thing seems like a mistake ...
This is very nearly done, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow and then attack it early in the day, before I have time to wring my hands.

saturday's efforts

(6x6)
Awhile back I bought some Japanese watercolor markers, which I've since supplemented with some colored Tonbow markers ... I made a couple of little sketches with them to try them out, then forgot all about them.
Yesterday I got them out and enjoyed playing around a bit: I feel a little afraid--ridiculous, I know--of the intense color, but, on the other hand, the markers seem to encourage more playfulness.

After being disappointed with the last fishing boat painting I worked on (I haven't posted it, but I will), yesterday I decided to start on this drawing I made last week.
I'm being careful, which is unlike me ... but I think I want to get past some details and major areas being cautious, with the hope that then I'll be able to finish off the sky and water a little more freely.

This is where I stopped last night:
(11x15)

And this is what I did this morning:

Now I'll prop it up where I can see it and think it over before going any further.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had painted the Brandywine Shoal lighthouse before. Here's one I did a year or two ago ... I had an earlier one, which I gave to a nice young man who was doing some construction work at my house and mentioned to me several times how much he liked it.
(9x12)

diligent squirrels get the best of tired proofreader

(12x12)
A few years ago I had phenomenal success with sunflowers: I planted a variety of them out front, where I get sun all day, and had some that were over six feet tall. I've tried every year since, but the squirrels always outsmart me.
This year I thought I had a good plan and started the seeds indoors, then planted the seedlings. But I guess seedlings must taste pretty good too, because the next morning they were all gone.
Now I just buy them: I picked up a little bunch at a farm stand day before yesterday. And continue to try to figure out how to paint them.

Houses on bay, North Wildwood
(9x12 sheet)

I put in a long day yesterday trying to finish a proofreading job: an anthology of Middle Eastern writing of the last century. It's fatiguing working on a large job with so many special characters and diacriticals--so many little things, along with all the rest, to keep track of. Diligence is a short-lived virtue.
The collection is one in a series of works put together by Words Without Borders; you can visit their website here. I read their eponymous short story collection and would recommend it. The anthology I'm proofreading, Tablet and Pen, is edited by Reza Aslan and features works translated from Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu.
I didn't finish, but had to stop and was going to just enjoy a few margaritas on the deck, but the bugs were a nuisance, so I came in and made these sketches for painting later, when the job's finished.
My father's--or as I called him when I was small no matter how many times my mother told me he was "daddy," Danny--last job was for Conrail, whose motto was "Keep It Moving," which I've adopted as my own.

"Lucky Danny," Cape May fishing boat (11x15)

(11x15)

fishing boats

(6x9)
Working on more fishing boats--work that's considerably more pleasant than actually working on a fishing boat. (Do you ever watch The Deadliest Catch?)
I've been kind of thinking--though anything involving commerce is outside my usual realm of thought--that there might be a market for these, and so now I'm considering these 6x9s as studies for larger paintings to come: a way to work out shapes and colors, hopefully refining them and improving on the compositions and my color choices. I suppose some painters do that before painting--but I can't; I have to try it out.

For instance, in the top painting, I wanted a reflected glow on the wheelhouse ... but didn't get it; the color looks dingy.
This morning I washed the whole area out, which, for me anyway, usually leads to an even bigger mess. I'll let it dry--if it will, in this humidity--and see if it's still workable.

bridges and boats

(5x7)
Another version of the Seven Mile Bridge ...

(5x7)
And a cropped fishing boat picture--that is I cropped the reference photo; this is the entire painting!

misfires

(7x11)

(7x11)
Lest it begin to look too easy, I thought I'd post these two paintings that I've been halfheartedly dabbing away at the last couple of nights. Both are unfinished, but they're just not working for me: No doubt it's the halfhearted part that doomed them!
I'm inlcined to abandon them and move on: One of the prerogatives of watercolor painting.