The Winningest Punt - in progress

The Winningest Punt - in progress

22" x 28"  oil on panel

I spent Saturday at the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador, starting work on a boat painting.  I didn't get a lot completed at the museum as I spent time talking to people who were visiting and letting them play with a few strokes of the knife on the painting.  It was good to share the process and information about the subject with others and the environment was perfect, surrounded by original wooden boats.

I've  put a few more hours in on the painting since Saturday, but need to let it dry a little before adding some final details. I usually work wet in wet with all my palette knife pieces, but the layers are getting thick in places and I wanted a bit more precision so will let the paint skin over before adding more.

Landscapes are not my forte so I was steadily carving out colour and 

detail of the rocks, vegetation and houses of the background.

I asked for references of wooden boats to be sent to me as potential subjects to be painted at the museum and from the submissions, chose this punt taken at water level by Mark Hiscock. This punt is called the winningest punt, because of its ability to capture first place in punt races at Fogo Island over the last four years.  Mark will receive a fine art reproduction of the finished painting for allowing me to use his image to paint.  The background of houses and above that a rock face, is The Battery at St. John's harbour.  It still looks very much like the original fishing village it was, despite being smack dab in the city.  Its one of the city's treasures and I hope it never changes.

A Gander River Boat made a great display for my sketchbook and business cards at the museum.

Of course with the glare of light off the oil paint, its near impossible to get a decent photo of the painting in its current stage.  Photographing paintings is my least favourite part of art.  Well not so much the photographing, more the editing!  However, here's a crop of the piece at its current stage.  I'll post the final image when its complete, hopefully sometime this week.