Original Watercolor Painting, “Plein Air, Sailboat from Jack Block Park, 1-2pm, 8.8.23”, watercolor, 30 x 42”, 2023

This painting was made while observing Puget Sound from Seattle’s Jack Block Park, between West Seattle and Harbor Island, on a calm day in August.  The sailboat is not a contrivance, but appeared as I was working, sailing way from me as I painted, its wake stretching wide across the still blue water.  One other white sail of a boat can be seen on the horizon line in the righthand corner.  The sky was very blue, and the water very reflective of that color.  As I began painting at 1pm, the sun high overheard tends to allow for a very pure blue atmosphere on fairly unclouded days.  I wanted to render the sky as I saw it, with the atmosphere lightening up approaching the horizon, and the cluster of white and gray clouds over the distant landforms.  I was careful as I laid in washes to leave the paper pure white for the white of the sailboats in the foreground and background - that is not white gouache touched in after - but the white of the paper, preserved and kept dry.  This painting came together quickly.  It is a simple work, almost sentimental if I’d invented it - but this was the scene as I observed it, in the heat at midday in August.