Back in the Seaddle

“Wherever you go, there you are.” Buckaroo Banzai

Attitude is everything, and I had a bad one upon returning to the U.S. I could have easily traveled for another month. So I figured the best antidote to kevetching was to go out and do what I had been doing all along while traveling: Plein air, on site, in public, painting. I mean I literally live in a vacation destination. People come to Vashon to rejuvenate and get that special feeling one gets when hunkered down on a quaint, rural, artsy island in the middle of Puget Sound.

“Chetzemoka” Oil on Canvas. 20”x16”

The ferries are the gate keepers of the island. The is the south end ferry boat, called Chetzemoka. Painting a ferry is right up there with painting light houses. It either signals the ending or the beginning of my painting career. Not sure which. But getting too wrapped up in subject matter is always a pitfall. It’s the painting itself that matters. The process. Standing there as the car lineup rolls past onto the boat, only to fill up again, like the rise and fall of the tides. The sun shifts it’s light with each return of the boat. Curious passers by, tired of scrolling on their phones while stuck in the lineup, stop to talk. Sometimes about the painting….sometimes not. Sometimes people just need to talk. A stranger is just a friend in the waiting.

THE PROCESS - I started with a raw sienna, almost yellow, background. It works wonders when painting landscape. The undercolor informs the layered colors that go on top of it, and it tends to imbue the image with a sense of light. I (an oft arrogant persona-type) tended to avoid tricks and gimmicks like this, mostly out of ego really. Art is just a bunch of tricks that one hopes to put a personal spin on, and this is as it should be. Uniquness is the icing, not the cake. The more tricks the better, just don’t expect them to do all the work.

I will do another today. Maybe go uptown, and spend half of my time talking. Kind of waiting for the marine layer to burn off. But that is not assured this summer. This and many other paintings will be displayed at the August 5th show at the Hastings Cone Gallery on Vashon Island. It will be up all month, but I hope to see you at the opening…..6pm!