The Holly Lynn at The Ladle

The Ladle is a landmark island just outside Eastern Harbor and one of my favorite fishing spots.  This is another instance where I had to use two photos to create the painting.

The Holly Lynn at The Ladle - oil on 30" x 40" stretched canvas, "creative edges" (needs no frame), priced at $900, free shipping.

Tip of the Day: Painting from Multiple Photos

There are times when I want to paint a particular scene, but with important element(s) added.  Here I had a photo of Shipstern Island, a picture I took of this beautiful island near Harrington, Maine (I took it from my lobsterboat).  The challenge was, I wanted my boat in the painting.  Luckily, I had had my friend Jason take some photos of me in my boat.  To create my scene, I picked a suitable photo of my boat, positioned it next to my photo of the island, keeping in mind distances and perspective, and taped them together.  Voila: me in my boat, sailing past Shipstern Island.

Painting from this collage, I was able to complete the scene I wanted, as shown below.

This painting, F/V Grammie at Shipstern Island, is oil on 12" x 16" canvasboard, priced at $300, free shipping.

Jason's F/V Holly Lynn

This fishing vessel, the Holly Lynn, is owned by a friend and neighbor who taught me all I know about lobster fishing and helped me buy and maintain my own boat - she's a beauty! 

Oil on 5 x 7 canvas board, $50 + $8 s/h

Lobster Boat on Mooring

For several years, I had my own 30' lobster boat and fished a handful of traps along the Downeast coast of Washington County, Maine.  While I was out and about, I took lots of photos of other lobsterboats for possible future paintings.  I've been working on two of them the last couple of days - here is the first one.

This is a 5 x 7 oil on canvasboard, $50 + $8 s/h.

Skiff II

Here's another view of the same skiff - I love painting reflections.
Oil on canvas board, 9 x 12, $150

Skiff on Mooring I

Skiffs are essential for lobstermen to get to and from their lobsterboats moored in the harbor.  They are notoriously neglected, left to bang against each other at the dock when not in use, and maintained only when absolutely necessary.  Most of them are home made out of plywood and liquid fiberglass.  Yet they can be some of the most picturesque and interesting boats around.  Last summer this one caught my attention (amazingly well kept), so I took a few photograps of it and decided to paint a couple of different views of the skiff.  Here is the first one.

Oil on canvasboard, 9 x 12, $150

Painting Fog with Atmosphere

I have had several requests for an explanation of how I paint fog. Well, I don't really paint fog, as such. Maybe you could paint a scene, let it dry, and then glaze over it with a thin layer of "fog", I don't know. What I do is use my "atmosphere". Atmosphere is usually your sky color, or some other light bluish grey paint that you mix into your "local color" - the "real" color of objects viewed up close. As objects recede into the distance, you add more of the atmosphere color to it, to make the color blur, giving the illusion of distance. I do this in most of my paintings. What's different about fog paintings is that I use much more of the atmosphere mix, making even closer objects appear enveloped in fog. When painting fog like this, you can also easily control the tone or mood of the whole painting by mixing some of the same atmosphere into all of your colors, thereby giving the painting "color harmony" - an overall blue tone, an overall purple tone, etc.