Maine Boats

You don't go to a Maine watercolor workshop and not paint a boat. It just isn't on. The second and third day out we spent on the docks at Mechanic street. David starts his demo at 9AM. Note his beginning washes look more like simple colored shapes...The finish is still very much about color and visual shapes and pattern and less about the boat. Still for me, a boat is a boat is a boat. And I find boats just as daunting as bridges - so out comes the Moleskine sketchbook. It's thumbnail time. My unfinished so-called boat painting...blech So I take another route and refer to David's ever-present portfolio. Ah ha! A beautiful boat painting by Edward Hopper - I'll do a thumbnail of this to warm me up! Voila!Doing the copy is so much fun, I plunge in to a larger version to see more clearly what Hopper was up to.
*Never hesitate to make copies of paintings you like. It's the best way to put yourself in another artist's shoes and understand what they were doing. After all, you're in a great tradition. Leonardo da Vinci was an apprentice toVerrocchio and copying was part of the job. Later on I do a very blurry, atmospheric boat - you can get away with a lot less information when there's mist on the scene. Here's an exquisitely misty boat of J.M.W.Turner's. End of every workshop day at 4, David gives us an hour crit and you learn from everyone's work. End of a trip to Maine....you have to have at least one bite of a stack of blueberry pancakes. de rigeur you know. Back to Paris next week.
BONNE WEEK-END!