What's New: boats

It's starting to feel like fall outside but I'm still holding on to the last few days of summer!  I've had so much fun painting boats all summer long.  During my visits to Rockport in May and June, I was able to get some terrific photos to use as inspiration for paintings I've already completed and a few I'm finishing up now.  

The positive feedback I've received about my boat paintings has been incredible, and the fact that many of them have sold and are brightening homes along the East Coast makes me beyond happy!  Once I finish the last few I'm working on, I think it's time to change gears.

I miss painting flowers and love painting figs ... what do you think?  

Dinghies, skiffs, rowboats ... call them what you want.  They line the granite walls and docks in the various harbors in Rockport, Massachusetts.  

They are not the kind of rowboats you'd take out for an afternoon in Central Park or Hyde Park, London.  These are "working" boats.  They wait for their owner to paddle them a short distance to their lobster or fishing boats.

 I've been asked many questions about my boat paintings ...

"What are those round white things in the boats?"   Milk jugs cut in half to bail out rain water.

"Why aren't there any oar locks?"  Since they are only rowing a short distance, one oar is enough.  It's also easy to stand up so some boats don't have any seats.

"Where are the oars, some of the boats don't have any oars in them?"  I suspect if the owner leaves the oar(s) in the boat, teenagers or tourists may take them out for a spin :)

How great are the colors and shapes, the shadows and reflections?

I love painting them!!

I often tell people that I don't think I fully appreciated growing up in beautiful Rockport, MA.  The winters could be long and pretty quiet up on the tip of Massachusetts, but the summers were awesome!  I always love going home.  It's so fun seeing my old pals and spending time at the beach and around town.  Walking through Rockport in the summer is like paging through Coastal Living Magazine.  Everywhere you turn is a picture ... pretty enough to paint.  The flowers, the ocean, the boats, the colorful buildings, on and on.  I am so thankful to have so much inspiration from a place that I call "home."