Saturday, December 25, 2010

Little Heart's Ease



I've had a lovely day filled with food and gifts and people and feel a bit tired at this point.  I think its always the way after the  build up to Christmas, then the point when you can finally relax.

I have some sort of bug brewing and haven't been 100% for a couple of days.  It the kind of thing that wakes me early, so I take advantage and try to do a little work during the wee hours.  It usually catches up with me during the afternoon and I end up napping.

This morning I did some work on a watercolour that I had begun a couple of months ago.  Its of a little dory sitting in Little Heart's Ease.  Yes, there really is a place with that name!  Early morning before the wind has had a chance to come up the water is so still and this little boat floats at its mooring waiting to rowed out into the bay.

Yes, the composition is all wrong.  Dead centre seldom works for any composition and this may be cropped to change that.  Its not a piece that will be available for sale so the process is the learning element, with not a thought to the final outcome.   

This was done on a half sheet -  15" x 22" - of 200lb watercolour paper.  Getting even washes of colour over large areas is challenging and the varying changes in light and contrast help break up the larger areas.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope you feel better soon.

This painting grabbed my attention for the way you have painted the water and reflection, which is lovely.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting on my sketch earlier.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Thanks, today I'm taking it easy and hopefully will be back to normal soon.

I see problems with this painting and have outlined some potential fixes on Watermarks. http://watermarks-art.blogspot.com/2010/12/saving-boat.html

Jennifer Rose said...

hopefully you feel better soon

great job with the reflection with the boat. I don't think its a huge problem with the boat being centered, the reflection helps a lot with that

RH Carpenter said...

There is a certain tension created by centering the boat that I like - and calmness of the water plays against the tension. It makes me want to step in and float away on Little Heart's Ease!! I hope you do crop or change it the way you want it because I think it's a stunning painting as is and maybe just a tweak will get it where you want it.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Thanks Jennifer. I'll probably feel better the day I go back to work! Seems my body protests with illness every time I have time off.

Over on Watermark (see the side bar on my blog) I've discussed options for cropping this piece.

Rhonda, I did try to capture the light and stillness of the water on that early morning. The place where the boat was is a little community called Little Heart's Ease. Newfoundland has lots of odd place names. Heart's Content, Heart's Delight...etc.

I've decided on the crop for this piece now and it will lose the horizon line and some of the right side of the image, concentrating on the dory and the expanse of water to the left. Let's hope it works!

RH Carpenter said...

I'd love to see it after the crop. Sometimes we learn so much from other people's fixes :) Although I really do like it as is (of course I may not be the typical art critic).