One of the paintings I did for Ricochet (click HERE to learn about this upcoming collaborative show) was month #10, September, 2014, when our theme was WATER. I knew immediately what I wanted to paint: the waterline of a ship.
The back story. We have a boat, which we moor on the Columbia River in Portland. In August, we went out for a weekend of boat camping with our daughters and grandkids. The weather was perfect and in a rare burst of exuberance, I put on my suit and jumped in the river for a float on the inner tube. While I was in the water, I noticed the waterline of our boat. It was a beautiful array of colorful patinas. I had someone carefully hand me my camera and I snapped a shot, thinking what a great painting it would make.
Fast forward to September. I dug out the photos I had taken and also looked on the internet for rusty ship hull waterlines. Oh, so many possibilities. I scooped up all the images and chose one for this project.
Then it was paint day with Cynthia.
By the end of the afternoon, it was pretty much completed. I futzed with it a bit more the next day, did the final wax, and called it done.
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax
I plan to continue exploring the theme of waterlines in upcoming paintings.