Maritime Sketches (1)

I had a bit of time this afternoon to do a couple of small sketches from the reference photos I took last week. These are nothing more than studies. As you can see, I have some work to do in figuring out how to get that lovely gray in the maritime skies!

Peggy's Cove

I spent some time in Halifax on business and got a free day to go sight seeing last Saturday. It was rainy and overcast all day, but it was the perfect setting to go see the coves and fishing towns on the southern east coast of the island. We made it from Halifax to Lunenburg passing, of course, through Peggy's Cove.
I couldn't paint at all. It was wet, windy and just not the weather to bring out paper and try to do anything with it except fly it! I did, however, get a lot of reference photos and made a lot of mental notes which I will translate into sketches and paintings soon I hope.

The place that I was most drawn to in the day trip was Mahone Bay. An absolute dream like location for painting. I wonder if I were to arrange a group painting trip to Halifax sometime next summer what would be the response? We would need at least a dozen people to make it worth while and get good discounts. Any takers out there??

And the winner is....

I had a very hard time making a decision about which poem was the best in the contest. Thank you all for joining in and making this a fantastic experience. I never though I would get this many wonderful poems. So here is what I have decided:

First: Everyone is a winner. I would like to send an ACEO to everyone who wrote a poem to the challenge. Please email me your address and I will send you a nice ACEO that I hope you will like.

Now for the winner. The final came down to two poems. Debi's and Irene's. The winner will get the choice of the 5"x7" and the second will get the other. These two poems were so powerful (not that the others were not), and kept me undecided to days!! But finally I had to make a choice of the first place.

Drum roll please..................

Here is the winner:

If on a summer evening late
You say that beauty is perishable
And the pregnant moon contradicts your words
Do not let yourself be dazzled by the planets
Which also have the eternal life.

And if in the night of the full moonlight
The stars glow as light publicity of god
Sleep not as a fallen angel
Forgotten by god and lost to me
And call me by my name in the glimmer of the morning.

Congratulations Irene. Please email me your choice and I will have it mailed to you ASAP. Debi your poem was excellent and very touching. As I said before you are all winners in my book and I am so grateful for the time and effort you put into this challenge.

We will do more!