Destination Singapore

Luck would have it when I arrived in Portsmouth, NH this past Wednesday: a foreign owned bulk cargo ship was docked on the river.  It was being loaded with ton after ton of ferrous scrap.  While the scrap yard's construction vehicles, looking more like a child's Tonka toys in scale with the ship, were maneuvering around the wharf and continuously dumping scrap iron into piles, the ship's numerous massive cranes were lifting these deposits with huge claw grabbers and then releasing it into the ship's cargo bays below.   What noise!  What dust!  (Exception: there was extreme quiet on the docks at lunch time.)

I enjoyed working out the painting's design of complex, overlapping shapes as well as developing a color palette for the color play of blue and orange.  How does one begin to create this Transformer-like scene of dimension and complexity with mere paint on a 12"X16" canvas?  A challenge indeed.

Just a note:  U.S. container exports is dominated by junk.  Scrap metal is our most valuable export accordingly to Metal Management-Sim, an iron recycle company.  Today, China buys much of our paper waste and metal scraps.  The export/import cycle goes like this: after the container ships are off-loaded with new consumer products bound for Wal-Mart and Target, these cargo ship's empty cargo bays are then filled to capacity with our scraps and waste products which in turn will be made into new consumer goods bound once again for U.S. consumers.

The scene I painted is more than a canvas organized with overlapping shapes and colors. The dominate feature of my painting is a big global business selling our cast away, metal junk and waste.

Perhaps I should have painted this scene in the color of 'green'?

Thickly Settled

Yesterday, the weather in Portsmouth, NH proved a bit of a painting dare.  The tenacity of some seasoned plein air painters is proven when dealing with the many weather challenges here in New England. A few of my fellow painters, Phil Bean, Mary Byrom and Barbara Carr painted the gnarly trees within the confines of the sheltered gated garden in Prescott Park.   Others like me painted in the open putting their vehicle between themselves and the brisk, 30mph NE winds.  My friend Marjet found a cozy spot behind the Harbor Master's shack, next to a cast away Christmas tree strung with colored lights.  (Hmmm, good old Yankee frugality would have had that tree stripped clean of those light sets before disposal.)  Look closely at the picture though and take note of the long log balanced as as extra weight for her French easel.  It was that windy out.  Not to take pre-caution like Marjet, the attached canvas acts as a canvas sail stretched high to catch the wind and the easel can go a sailin' into the wild blue yonder.  But hey, there was sunshine!

My painting site of tightly, clustered homes and fish businesses in the area called Peirce Island made me think of the unique New England road signage, 'Thickly Settled'.  This sign is not just a quaint descriptive phrase for the clusters of antique homes and buildings of Puritanical ancestral lineage.  Drivers in Massachusetts who observe this signage must drive no more than 30 mph or risk a speeding ticket according to the official DMV driving manual. 

So slow down and enjoy the scenery.  When plein air painting, I do!