Grey Day Eastport Maine

Grey Day Eastport Maine

Watercolor - 7" x 8.5"

This watercolor was completed on location during my recent trip to Eastport.  Overall, the weather was beautiful, but we did have one grey day with showers.  I had to seek shelter in the car and the sky opened up.  I do really enjoy the occasional rainy day.  The sound of rain on the roof and windshield was so soothing.

The atmospheric effects during the brief time it took me to complete this painting were amazing.  At one point,  the sea smoke / fog rolled in all but obscuring the building.  At other times, the rain was so heavy and the thickness of the fog varied so that some or most of the building was obscured.   Some of the islands in the harbor seemed to be floating in the air, the horizon was indistinguishable.  All of these changes in effects occurred within a half an hour to 45 minutes.   I could have done a half dozen paintings from this same view and they would all have been different.  I did take some notes and photo's of some of the different views and may well give a few of them a shot.

I observed for about 10 minutes and then got a scene that I wanted to paint.  It changed constantly throughout my painting, but I was pleased with the accuracy of the final result.  I decided to paint this scene in Monochrome (indigo) as the patterns of light and dark and muted reflections were what drew me to this scene.  

The tides are also amazing to observe.  This was a rising tide,  At low tide, the pier to the left and much more beach is totally exposed.  The ocean is slowly reclaiming its territory.  Large concrete sections of the pier weighing tons have fallen underneath the pier as erosion defeats human construction.

Going to new or in this case. less familiar places is always so inspiring and reminds me to observe my daily surroundings more carefully.