Painting Shrimpboats on Tuesday

Today is my plein air painting adventure day with my Lucy and  painting buddy Denise Broussard. You guessed it, we painted shrimp boats again.  Olive Lou stayed home with her daddy today so Lucy didn't have a friend to play with while we painted but she was such a little angel.

We got out on location early, checked out the marina to try and finish out paintings from last week but the boat I was painting was out fishing and other boats were in the way for Denise to continue her painting.  Guess that one is for another trip later.

We decided to leave there and went back to our spot with the larger boats. As I began setting up a few things went wrong.  I have this 6' umbrella and a plein air umbrella that I usually bring. Rushing to get out of the house, I forgot my umbrella stand at home.  When I opened the big red umbrella, the thumb stopper that keeps the umbrella open was broken. So, I improvised.   I shoved an old toothbrush I had in my paint stuff into the umbrella and laid it on its side for shade for Lucy and I used the other one.

Oh, and did I mention, my turp container accidentally opened and all my turp leaked out who knows where.  I borrowed from Denise, thank God for painting buddies.  And it was very, very, very windy. 

Because of our time schedule and all my time lost trying to figure out the umbrella fiasco, I decided not to paint a huge painting.  I painted 8 x 8 of three of the boats docked at the end of the canal. Because of all the time I lost, I had to move fast.

I skipped over the sketching, measuring, composition, etc. planning that I usually think through before I begin.  I just put my earphones on, listened to music, enjoyed the day and let everything just flow naturally.

I don't have a picture of this, but there were about 8 boats docked in this small canal.  While we were painting a couple of other boats exchanged places while we were there.  It is so unbelievable  how these captains can just maneuver these huge boats in and out of this small canal like they are parking a little tiny boat.  Amazing!

LUCY ANNA ESCAPADES:

Lucy helping 

"I got this"

Bay Shrimp Boats

Today was another beautiful weather day of painting shrimp boats with my painting buddy, Denise Broussard, and our two Schnauzers, Lucy and Olive.  We headed out to Intracoastal City, LA.  After picking a spot at a local marina, we setup and began painting.

Our puppies love our painting excursions because they get to hang out and play all day.

People love to visit and tell us about their boats, stories and what they do. One man stopped to give us some history about the different bay shrimp boats we were painting today at the Marina. He makes shrimp nets by hand.  We visited for awhile while he told me a few shrimp fishing stories.  The boats we have previously painted are offshore shrimping boats.

The boat I was painting belongs to a very nice man by the name of Buckie. The cabin cruiser boat behind showed up while I was painting...ugh

Although it was a beautiful day with wonderful painting weather, we didn't pick a great day to paint there because before we were finished the grass cutting crew showed up which is not good for paint, paintings and allergies, so we packed up and headed home.

Here is my unfinished piece...to be completed another day.

Shrimp Boats

I've been painting boats with my paint buddy, Denise Broussard, lately.  We are getting our stamina up for our upcoming trip to Ft. Meyers, Florida "Paint the Beach" in November.

The following painting was painted in Delcambre, LA at the public dock area.  We brought our paint mascot Schnauzers Lucy Anna and Olive Lou with us on this excursion. Because we were right at the point of the public dock we smelled boat and exhaust fumes all day, yuck.  Also, we first got there and had just set up, I forgot to tie up my large umbrella and it went sailing into the water.  This very nice man retrieved it for us.  It was so hot that day and with all the distractions, my concentration level was very low.   I have to say when I got home I had to do some fixing on this painting, probably more than I would like to have.

The following is a picture of what I painted from.  To the right of the point is the boat launch.  I wish now that I would have taken a picture of all of the fishermen on the left of where the picture was.  There were 11 boats anchored along the left shore.  I think it would have made a great painting.  Oh well, another day.

The following painting was painted on location in Intracoastal City, LA.  This spot was more of a secluded area where the shrimpers dock their boats and offload at the shrimp plant.  Can you imagine the smell. We had a great painting day but it was very hot.





















Here is the picture of what I was painting from that day.  This small shrimp boat was for sale and docked further into the end of the canal.
















We went back to the same spot again in Intracoastal City, LA  I will probably tweak this boat a little more before I say it is done.

Here is the picture of what was there.  There were definitely more boats there this time.  The building behind is the shrimp processing warehouse with that wonderful smell.  I wish I would have had a bigger canvas to paint all of the view in.  Guess that will be for another day...