The Ephemera Series

A painting I did for the fun of doing it. The beginning of the Ephemera series of things that don't last long.  It's a view of Gloucester harbor from the Marine Railways.  12x16 inches, oil on linen panel.

Narragansett Trawler

A trawler at Narragansett, RI.  My seventh boat painting in the format of 16x20 inches, oil on linen panel.  Across the water is Jerusalem.  

In Galilee

Last week I visited Galilee, a fishing village in Narragansett, RI, where I found this wooden boat. Across the bay is another fishing village called Jerusalem, directly reachable only by boat or walking on water.  16x20 inches, oil on linen panel.  

Rockport Painting

This painting underwent some slight changes, so I photographed it again. For some reason, I've always wanted to do this view.  16x20 inches, oil on linen panel.

Watery Work

The frequent rain has granted me time to work on this watery painting, based upon the recent plein air work I did at Gloucester, MA.  16x20 inches, oil on linen panel.

Docked And Missing

A docked boat at the Marine Railways at Rocky Neck in Gloucester, MA. When I arrived to paint the plein air version, on which this painting is based, I encountered a short, stocky man of retirement age looking at the boat.  I asked him if it would be leaving.   He said knowingly that it would be there for a while.  Then he volunteered that he used to own a boat, but he sold everything and moved to NH.  Now, he said, I've come back.  I sensed that he missed his boat.  16x20 inches, oil on linen panel.

Rising With The Tide

The other day I found myself in a bar in the Northeast Kingdom in northern Vermont where the television was showing a golfer demonstrating how to hit a golf ball.   He had a multitude of tricks and gadgets to improve one's swing.  If only I could learn everyone of these tips, acquire everyone of these lessons, and absorb each of these ideas, I too could become a Master.  

The painting depicts parked boats rising with the tide at Marine Railways at Rocky Neck in Gloucester, MA.  9x12 inches, oil on linen panel.

Hauled In At High Tide

My mind is still in the boatyard nevertheless, as I count down the paintings I made there.  Large boats are hauled out of the water at high tide on wooden ramps for repairs.  The high vertical beams with narrow walkways and tall ladders that surround a large boat make for interesting compositions. 9x12 inches, oil on linen panel.

Saved

It was a foggy, cloudy, rain-threatening day when I painted the Explorer IV.  The front end of the boat had a yard-long hole from hitting some rocks.   I was told that a water compartment at that location, capable of being shut off, and not usually found in such boats, saved it from sinking.

Liberty Star

The schooner Liberty Star from Boston was out of the water at the Gloucester Marine Railways last week. I witnessed the masts being re-installed but missed the boat being moved back into the water.  Later when we asked a crew member how it went,  he said that the boat was taking on a little water, a surprise to a novice like me, and we could see the pumps working.  He said the wooden boards shrink when the boat is out of the water, and all would be ok as soon as the hull was newly acclimated to the water.  9x12 inches, oil on linen panel.

Knowing The Ropes

When I first looked at this one back inside, I saw that I left off a couple of important ropes.  It's easy to look at something and not see it.  After repeatedly watching the fishermen tie and untie their boats, I had to put in a couple missing ropes.   9x12 inches, oil on linen panel.

Nexus in Gloucester

The combination of these two boats, pointed in different directions, at the end of the Gloucester Marine Railways at Rocky Neck was fascinating.  The changing light kept re-adjusting the relationship that they had to each other and their surroundings.  12x16 oil on panel.

On A Previous Rainy Cloudy Day

A 9x12 oil on panel painting, most of which I did on site at Rocky Neck, Gloucester, last year on a rainy, cloudy day.

East Gloucester from Rocky Neck

A view from Rocky Neck across the harbor to East Gloucester: a 20x24 oil on panel.  I acquired some frames a while back, so I have been painting to the frames.

Gloucester Harbor

This painting I just did for fun.  I've always liked Dutch landscape paintings with a low horizon and a high sky done from what looks like a high vantage point. This one is a view of Gloucester Harbor, a 12 x 16 oil on panel.

The Borderland

A 9x12 oil on panel of a large boat at the public pier in Gloucester, MA.

The borderland--that's where, if one knew how,
one would establish residence.  That watershed,
that spine, that looking-glass . . . I mean the edge
between impasto surface, burnt sienna, thick,
             striate, gleaming--swathes and windrows
             of carnal paint--
             or, canvas barely stained,
             where warp and weft peer through,

and fictive truth: a room, a vase, an open door
giving upon the clouds.

A step back, and you have
the likeness, its own world.  Step to the wall again,
and you're so near the paint you could lick it,
you breathe its ghostly turpentine.

Words from the poem "The Life of Art" by Denise Levertov.

Paint

Someone once asked me years ago if I painted anything else besides trees, and I was asked the other day if I'm not yet tired of painting boats.  You might as well ask me if I'm tired of using paint.   This Gloucester harbor view is a 12x16 oil on panel.  However, I do think I'll be painting something else soon.

Not Flying Schooners

Another 12x16 oil on panel painting that I did at the end of Pirates Lane in Gloucester, MA.  These two boats are not flying schooners, though I read in The Gloucester Guide that the term "schooner" may have originated at the end of Pirates Lane.  During the week I noticed that sometimes these two boats were gone, but they would eventually always end up in the same spot.

Decrepit Beauty

This the fourth time I've painted this old structure at the Gloucester Marine Railways shipyard, this time at low tide so you can see its age and decrepit beauty.  In some places at the harbor's edge one can only see the ends of posts jutting out of the water to indicate what might have existed at one time over the water.  This painting is a 9x12 oil on linen, which I will eventually mount to a foam core panel.

Not A Portrait of a Boat

This is not a portrait of a boat, but a view from a pier in Gloucester harbor.  The painting is a 12x16 oil on panel.