Day 87: Moving Targets
Ever tried to paint a boat in the wind? Me either until this morning. What an exercise in patience, drawing skill and short-term memory!
Little Boat in the Harbor8×6″Oil on Panel© Kelly Medford, 2012I wanted to call this a dinghy, but then I looked up the definition and this boat doesn’t qualify as a life boat. I’m sure someone uses it just to go out fishing, and I wish I knew more about fishing and painting boats too!Today I learned that trying to paint a boat swinging back in forth in the wind is tricky, but good practice nonetheless. Obviously, like everything else, time and conditions are not going to sit still while I attempt to paint them. Learning to capture something while it is changing and moving is an important part of the process of outdoor painting. This, of course, is the heart of the daily paintings: to get as much experience as possible to improve my painting ability.Today I picked this boat to paint because I loved the reflections, the water, the shape of the boat and the light versus dark side. Plus the little flags added some color and broke up the space. I can see that this is a subject that one must paint over and over again to get it right!You can buy today’s painting here from my website for $120.Thanks so much for following the 120 Day Project and hope you’re having a great summer!
Sue Pownall
July 29, 2012 at 7:50 pmThis would qualify as a dinghy where I grew up 7 miles from east coast. For us dinghy has/had nothing to do with lifeboats, it’s about the size and type.
Kelly Medford
August 1, 2012 at 3:33 pmHa, ha, that was the same with me, growing up going out on a sailboat every weekend. We called any little boat a dinghy as well. Only now did it occur to me to look up the definition.