Monday 1 June 2009

Working Afloat


On board I have a little sketchbook. Well to tell the truth I have a lot more than that, I have a whole array of drawing and painting ephemera, ready for longer trips, overnighters and "round Lands-End", that sort of thing.
For the first few trips in the "studio boat" we have sailed out into Falmouth Bay, up the Helford River and also out to sea... for five nautical miles!!
Anyway... to start my "Cornwall from the sea" project I have been scribbling away in my little on board sketchbook. "The Captain" gets a bit annoyed when I am too busy to ready about or sling the anchor in or all of the other nautical things that need to be reefed or hoisted or hauled but I make valiant efforts to ignore him and get some drawing done.



I can tell you it is a difficult job, the boat heaves and pitches, the scenery is all so beautiful that I want to draw EVERYTHING!
So I scribble away with a lovely pencil that is water soluble and smudges and washes blue with the water brush/pen.



I take photos too but most of all I try to get into my head how the land meets the sea. The lush wooded sides of the river, the little nibbled beaches and tall granite cliffs over which tumbles the land. Then it is home to the studio on dry land where I attempt to convert all of that into a finished piece. It is boiling hot here, cloudless blue skies, the dry land studio is hot too and I think that might be influencing the pictures... lots of blue skies and deep, cool, green sea. I am going back out on the boat, going to strip off and dive in!

Anyway here is one finished painting. I am putting them onto "paintmap" too so that you can see exactly where in the sea I was bobbing.
OK, off for that swim...



9 comments:

Making A Mark said...

Wonderful Sarah - the look of the water took me right back to when I used to sail!

I love the idea of the project as well - should be unique and great!

Gesa said...

yes - they are so wonderful and that must be so enjoyable: slowly moving along and sketching. i like your interest on where the land meets the sea - i think that zone of interchange/exchange and border crossing is so intriguing. thanks for all the sketches - the blue watersoluble pen works very well.

vivien said...

how wonderful and what a great project.

I too realised a few years ago that it's edges that fascinate me - the edge of the land or the edge of the woods - where one thing meets another.

Charlene Brown said...

Could you tell us what kind of pencil you use? Some of my watercolour pencils behave well, but the blue green is kind of unreliable and the purple (my favourite) is terrible.

Lindsay said...

Sarah, congrats for getting the floating studio sea worthy and ship shape. (We all know the most important reason to get the boat is to paint, after all. ;>)

I make a lousy first mate too...I keep hearing something about not paying attention to paddling and getting distracted.

Looking forward to seeing this series develop.

Laura Frankstone said...

This is going to be a wonderful summer for us, the admirers of your paintings, Sarah! I love seeing the sketches, especially, here. Lovely, lovely, though, all of it!

Anonymous said...

Great sketching Sarah and so nice to see a finished painting. This is an exciting project - for you to take on and for us to follow along..I wish we could follow along in that "swim off the deck"...maybe if you give us a sketch of it, we can?
Ronell

Jeanette Jobson said...

The land and sea in your painting are such luscious colours and so right for this time of year when the grass is healthy and growing and the sea reflects the sky so well.

Its good to be able to watch the land from the water. You see a new side of the world.

Unknown said...

Inspiring! I used to live on a sailboat, and I know how challenging it is to create a work of art. Nothing stays still! I love your work.