Tuesday was art class, always the best day of the week. This time we warmed up with exploring Picasso imagery. Fascinating use of form to lead the viewers eye around an image. Masterful. Then we moved on to the main images of the day … a nautical theme I liked because I am a … 
(presently frustrated) sailor marooned from his boat. Yesterday’s selection of images from an old German master moved me because they depict one of the sailing sailor’s worst fears - that of being caught in a storm on a lee shore. The fate of such sailors, trapped by the wind …
deep into a bay with wind and waves on one side and a rocky shore downwind, was an agonising wait in fear of the inevitable,
because their old wooden sailing ships could not make headway against the wind and heavy seas ( hence the term ‘embayed’). This was a truly terrifying …
because their old wooden sailing ships could not make headway against the wind and heavy seas ( hence the term ‘embayed’). This was a truly terrifying …
experience because most could not swim & no rescue services existed in those days. Sailboat design of course gradually improved so that vessels could make headway into a strong wind in all but the worst sea states by tacking (as depicted in this image). But still that primordial
Fear of ‘being caught on a lee shore’ lingers on in every sailors mind. When I think about it it’s probably comparable to landlubbers who fear of being caught in a great contagion … something rather special.
Here’s the image I selected to reproduce … is that terrifying enough?
Here’s the image I selected to reproduce … is that terrifying enough?
You have to ask yourself what would be going through the minds of the poor sailors on board those ships.
I began my drawing as usual with thumbnail sized ‘notan’ sketches planning light & dark tones, features to draw the viewers eye, & treatment of colour, then put a first layer
I began my drawing as usual with thumbnail sized ‘notan’ sketches planning light & dark tones, features to draw the viewers eye, & treatment of colour, then put a first layer
of pastel crayon on the canvas - inaccuracies /mistakes can always be corrected later but the first objective is to reproduce the notan elements a full scale and proportion. I got to this point by class end. It’s far from finished & will look more terrifying with further work.
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