A Boat Painting
I finished a painting the other day. It was months in the making… Well, sort of. I had done most of it in one sitting a while back, but then when I got to the boat I felt really intimidated. Boats have a certain look. They are shiny, detailed and at times textured… They breathe somehow. Their weightless freedom exudes life. A boat in water is a beckoning of choices. The mind knows that a boat is detailed and purposeful. With living things occupying it… most of the time anyway. It knows that a boat often conjures up ideas of relaxation… freedom… indulgence or at the very leas, a peaceful existence somehow. But the photo I was painting from locked me into a very strict palette of whites (blue-hued to grey-hued) to work with. It seemed too technical, and so I froze. I made excuses not to finish. I said the paper was warped. I said the picture was to small to work with. I decided I really didn’t know what a boat looked like to be able to relate enough information between my mind and hands.
But alas, it is finished. The paper is still warped. The boat is a bit abstract. But it is a full-fledged painting. And I am proud of it. Astonishment hits me everytime I finish something striking. I really couldn’t teach someone how to do it. But it just flows out. I guess that is why a unique ability is called a “gift”… Because its goodness is so unexpected even to the one who possesses it.
I am so excited you pushed through and finished it. The final product is excellent. You do have a special gift! The greatest achievements are ones that have the risk of failure. If it all came easy, then it wouldn’t be special. Keep painting!
Thanks, Joe! I am excited to find out what else I have up my sleeve!
I likes it.
I find your description of what, physically, a boat is (“shiny, detailed … textured”) to be surprising. If this is what you were thinking you had to put on the page, I can see why you were intimidated. Putting some sleek shiny thing in this painting would have worked, but I think that then the painting would have been about contrast – the boat versus its background. The way it is, the boat fits the gentle, sort of informal feel of the rest of the painting.
Let me know if you post a higher resolution photo somewhere, I’d like to look at the details sometime.
Yeah, I think you are right, peaj. It would have jumped out too much if I executed it to perfectly. The image flows nicely the way it is… And that reflecting water! Gosh, I can’t believe that came from my hands!!
It is pretty amazing. Isn’t it cool when you create something beyond your idea of what your abilities are?
I very much like this painting. Good job, Mindy!
BTW, let’s cut to the chase. Freedom, indulgence…
Boats make me think of this
Ah, not sure why that link doesn’t really work.
This is what I was talking about:
http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/070503/jaws_l.jpg
Hi stranger!! It’s nice to know you stopped by! Thanks, Jase. I guess my painting is the calm before the storm… or the shark attack in some cases! LOL
Fake.
And finally… why the “alas, now it is finished.” What’s alas about it?
Hmm, well in this instance “alas” is a a sigh of relief. This painting has been beckoning attention and needing an ending for months. It was a pitiful empty space where the boat was. It needed its “main character”, if you will. It was like telling a story but never revealing enough to make it interesting. Just shadows of the form… no being. And the void was driving me crazy…
Oh, and in other instances “a las” is a girl… In Ireland, I think.