Harbor Colors continued

My “Harbor Colors” series has generated several sales from local galleries and also through the website. The intensified color scheme seems to resonate with people adding another dimension to the complexity of the fishing vessels riggings and sweeping shape of the vessels themselves. Comments have been “I love the colors”, “The detail in the rigging is spot on”, “Love, Love the reflections”, and “I’ve seen that boat in Ilwaco” to name a few. One of my sales was to a couple that knew the boat owners of one of my subjects and bought it as a gift. I had a gentleman that saw one of my boats on the website and contacted me directly to purchase it to give as a Mothers Day gift to a friend that lives on the peninsula. My linoleum block prints, that I have hand colored, have been popular and continue to sell both matted and framed. As I continue to add to this collection I search out new and interesting subjects from several sources and plan on expanding my search to other harbors through out the Pacific Northwest. I have a studio in Vancouver WA. where my acrylic paintings are created and a studio in Ocean Park WA. on the Longbeach Peninsula where my Linoleum Block Prints are created. Sales are great although that is not my only goal, I really enjoy people who let me know that they really love a painting that they have purchased or would like to own. The joy that they have in owning one of my creations is a joy that I share with them, as I part with my painting that I have grown to love. Ever the early 70’s, when I first saw the fishing vessels of Gloucester, MA. coming and going from their harbor moorings, I have been bitten by the bug to paint them. I also read about them and study as much as I can about their journeys’ through their working lives. I have visited the East Coast many times and have used photo’s from those trips as reference many times over. Now residing here in the Pacific Northwest I have acquired a large photo gallery of these western style vessels and have successfully continued my goal of painting many of them. A good friend of mine, who just visited my wife and I in Ocean Park, who is a retired Captain told me he really likes that I spend time on filling in as many of the rigging lines that I can. I feel this practice gives these paintings some authenticity in their portrayal as a record of their existence as working vessels, as the machines that they are. Making them colorful and as beautiful as I can accentuates their already impressive appeal as wonderful vessels of the sea. Unlike cruise ships and pleasure craft these hard working vessels are challenged each trip out of port to catch enough sea bounty and bring it and crew back safely to earn a living. They depend on their guile, grit, experience and bravery to battle the seas they ply for days on end. Their fate in the hands of their skipper, their own will and the will of God. “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever” Jacques Cousteau 



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Harbor Colors

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A Life Time of Art