Seascapes in Watercolour

After my scarlet macaw painting, I mentioned that I was working on another piece for consideration at my local art gallery for new artists.

Living on an island, one of the perks entails the ability to have pretty close access to the water and increases our modes of transportation options. In that light, we have a ferry I use to get to work and one of the sights is this shipwrecked boat that’s been rusted out and has become a perch for both seagulls and fishermen.

One of the challenges of this piece was painting rust for the first time, and not just a small section, an entire boat full! Challenge accepted! With the help of YouTube I discovered some helpful videos to improve the realism of the decaying boat with a palette consisting mostly of burnt and raw umber, sepia and some indigo. Painting the textures involved some tricks of the trade such as salt and the paint splatter technique for the whites and aged nature of the boat’s hull to show the accumulation of years of decay.

The sea and the reflection on such a large canvas (18″x 24″) was another exercise in patience and speed. Patience in knowing the process had to be done in layers and not being unhappy mid-process and speed to ensure the paint didn’t dry before I needed it to to apply another swipe with my brush…especially since my largest brush at the moment is a flat 16! Crazy, I know!

So here’s the final result of all the experimentation. Have you ever done a seascape?