I decided to start painting at the beginning of the Pandemic as something to pass the time in retirement. I had long wanted to try painting, but with work demands I never seemed to find time to learn. I love taking photos when I vacation and have built up quite an inventory of photos that might inspire a painting. I have a number of photos from a 2013 road trip across Scotland that was one of my favorite vacations ever. Below is one of two old boats pulled ashore on Broadford Bay on the Isle of Skye that inspired a painting I did this week.

I wanted to emphasize the boats more in the painting so I cropped the photo in and enlarged the boat on the left to be more of a focal point.

The block in stage is usually when I can tell whether I am going to like the final painting. I really liked the clean shapes of the block in of this painting. I prepped the canvas with a light red hue before starting and I like how that red glow comes through the first coat of paint on this one.

I’ve never used palette knives to paint with instead of brushes so I decided to experiment with a palette knife and lots of thick buttery paint for the sky and water.

When I started the details of the boats, I realized the palette knife experiment was over. I’m not yet skilled enough with a knife to paint the details of the boats and dock area, so I went back to a brush, but continued to try to use lots of thick buttery paint. On the grasses I was able to go back to the knife since they are very abstract. I learned from this experiment that I like the final painting better with the texture you achieve by using lots of paint. Below is the final version.

Boats on Skye

9”x12” Oil on Canvas Paper”

All photos on this post were taken by me, unless a source is specified. If you’d like to use any of these images, please contact me.