Thursday

At sea, on land and in the air.

The watercolours I painted in the four months I stayed on board "Aquarella"
during the summer of 2018
Painting under the sunshade in the cockpit
rowing over to a nearby wreck to paint from my dinghy.
Screenshot from a video taken with the
GoPro from half way up Aquarellas mast.
Working on a watercolour in the cabin

Creating works of art on a rocking boat isn't easy. Some days are more difficult than others, but the inspiration I find so near at hand is hard to beat. In a strong wind when the boat is constantly rocking it is difficult to keep a steady hand for the detailed work. I often choose to do something else then and wait until everything calms down. Sometimes there's a dead calm until suddenly a motorboat charges by at full speed and violently rocks the boat in it's wake. I swear then but it doesn't help.

Enjoying the company of friends on board.
Two giggling girls; me and  Katinka.

But I have not only been painting watercolours this summer. As I mentioned before, I am writing a book about painting the sea. This has been a gigantic project which is still unfinished but I am getting there. I have had the kind help of friends; The successful Swedish author Katinka Bille who came aboard and gave me a lot of good advice about my project.
Then my friend Sarah Atkins, who is an English teacher from the UK, has taken on the task of proof reading the whole manuscript, which is no easy job. So I hope to be able to publish the book in the not so distant future.
Another project I have been working on, in between painting and writing, is producing a new video about my work. I filmed with a Mavic pro drone, a GoPro, a Canon EOS5D, my ipad, iphone and a small Sony cybershot with a good zeiss lens. But it isn't the filming that takes time, it's the editing. I am still working on that....