When the weather is wet and windy, I can still sketch and watercolor at the pilothouse table. Windows surround me 180 degrees and if the wind blows, I just do three sketches at once -- at various points on the boat's swing. Madcap, maybe. But it works for me.
Water is an obvious subject for artistic observation when you are on a boat. It is never still! It moves in and out with the pull and push of the tides. Six hours in, six hours out. In. Out. Up. Down. High. Low.
If the wind blows, the water responds with little ripples or white tipped waves.
Even though the water finds its horizontal place, filling in all of the nooks and crannies of the low landscape, it is constantly on the move. And I am watching it with fierce concentration.
I can see already that these sketches are calling to be painted. I struggle to stop looking now that I have seen the mystery and subtle beauty. How can you resist this?
It was a quiet bay and we were at anchor. In the late afternoon we heard the sound of a large diesel engine, the sound attached to the tugboat "Tyee". They anchored not too far from us. It looked like a working tugboat that was converted to a live aboard boat. I was charmed by the tires and fenders tied to the rails with thick ropes.
