Painting in Galveston in the Spring involves water. It can be from the ocean of the sky. This Sunday morning it was from the sky and while it is difficult to paint in the rain I love doing it. I crawled into the back of my car and watched the traffic go by this glorious monument.
The following two paintings were painted at the Galveston Bait and Tackle Shop. It 's a place where fishing guides pick their customers and then return hours later with coolers full of fish to clean. This activity does not go unnoticed as hundreds of very hungry pelicans await patiently for the cleaning. There are signs all over the place that say "Do not feed the wildlife!" But the pelicans cannot read nor apparently can the guides as the fish parts are thrown into the waiting beaks of the pelicans and a few other birds that can content with this frenzy.
Arriving early in the morning is a necessity while painting plain air. Donna and I set up shop on the pier. She painted the Pelicans while I painted Susan Sterle painting a pelican. We were in the shade for some rare shade this particular morning and we enjoyed the conversations and interest of various fisher people as they purchased bait for their morning outing.
There were many food trucks along Broadway in Galveston waiting for customers for all sorts of food. One of them was a mint green truck with a cherry hispanic couple that ran the operation. We decided that we needed to try a nocturnal painting. We made sure that they would be open near and after dark so we could come back and spend a couple of hours painting. I'm not wild about what I did but it ws fun to try! I felt that it needed come customers and have photos of some people that came alone and will perhaps add to the painting at my home studio.
A second try at a nocturne behind Katies Restaurant on Pier 71. It is a favoriteplace to eat. The shrimp boats that fish for the dinner served park their boats behind the restaurant and that makes it a festive place to dine and to paint. The water dazzles with the lights from the boats and the diners.
A couple of photos of the food truck and the house I painted below. The owner came out and we chatted. She called it her Fairy Tale House. She had had the archway in front constructed to match the arches on the historic home behind. It was late afternoon and the sun was beautiful hitting the jasmine on the vines around the arch. Jus t a lovely setting.
In the morning on a cloudy day when the humidity is in the nineties the air is like a fog filter and the colors and effects of the light are like the pearly interior of a shell. It is magic. Gone are the harsh shadows and the grueling sun. It's just everything soft and lovely. This little piece of the West Beach had trapped pools of water from all the rain in the past week and they added to the beauty with the reflections of the soft clouds. The grasses new and old were of every pastel. We would have enjoyed the experience a little more than we did if the mosquitoes had not also set up shop here.
One of my most favorite things to paint on the seashore are the companies that are marine dry dock facilities. There you can get up close to the entire structure and often see the hull underneath which is such a beautiful part of the boat. Below is Fireboar #2 of the Galveston on fire patrol. She was in for service and was in the holding pit ready for the apparatus that can life 23 tons out of the water and bring it online to be worked on. I found the yellow bands that hung waiting and the hugs wheels that were taller than I am just fascinating. The workers in the marine yard were so nice. They got pylons and put them up so nobody would run over me with their huge incoming trucks. They offered me water and were constantly checking to see how I was doing. Below are two photos of the actual boat and with me standing in from of the lift. Such fun!!!!1
My favorite painting of the week, alone with the dry dock Fire Boat, is this pleasure boat moored in a private Marina. There is just something about the way a boat sits head first in the water that is so powerful - even though it is not very large. The sun was out and the sky was beautiful. The colors were just right and the way it was just waiting for the next outing was impressive. What a joy to paint under these circumstances. I didn't see the name of the boat - an oversize on my part!
The East Beach has some old cement blocks and pieces of construction that almost look like rock. You can almost feel like you are on the west coast instead of the sandbar island of Galveston. The ocean is almost when the tide begins to come in make some waves that are interesting. The ocean here is at the shore line is not turquoise and blue like Florida or California but it is beautiful in its own way. I would the yellowish colors of the undersides of the waves and the reddish colors of the sand quite lovely. The patterns of the sea foam as it recedes after a way is always interesting. It never stops moving. It is like trying to paint a dances, you have to just watch and watch some more and they dash to record what you think is happening before you forget. For a landlubber this is a treat. I enjoyed every minute painting this. Wish I could record the sound to go alone with the painting. This is the ultimate in Plein Air painting.
Last my not least is the "Quick Draw". This is a painting to be done in a specific place during a 2 hr time period. Across the street from the Garten Verien was a lovely home with a red door. Nice palm trees too I hadn't painted any palm trees on this trip. So why not? It was my Quick Draw. Cheers to a week in Galveston!
