Lobsterboat Harbor Full
at Cape Porpoise Harbor, Kennebunkport, Maine
in the early evening, painted plein air June 4, 2020
10" x 8" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on
140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press fine 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed, $300
SOLD (via the 2020 Yarmouth Art Festival)
Thoughts while painting this: As I looked out at the harbor, I saw a design pattern to enhance and focus on., all while keeping it loose. And because I'm a story teller, a writer, even in a visual sense, adding the lone rowboat at the bottom right, made me smile, sort of a Where's Waldo moment, a story, everyone's in the harbor, except for one lobsterboat out at sea.
The drawing is done, ready to paint at familiar Cape Porpoise.
With Goat Island light in the distance, it was a glorious evening to paint. A mother with three daughters wandered by, keeping their social distance, and when chatting they learned that I was the author and photographer of on of their favorite books, The Remarkable
Riderless Runaway Tricycle, one of their favorite books. The mother's mother, pipped in that the she knew one of the characters in the book, Helen Schepens-Kraus, the watercolor painter who's easel knocked was over by the tricycle, and that grandmother owned three watercolors by Helen Schepens-Kraus.
Page 25, The Remarkable Riderless Runaway Tricycle
Bruce McMillan (Houghton Mifflin, 1978)
"Helen Schepens-Kraus (1916 -1988) was born in Spokane, Washington. Painting watercolor landscapes and seascapes of the Central California inland and coastal regions as well as nudes and floral still lifes, she painted in what is referred to as the California Style. She exhibited widely in the Monterey and San Jose, California areas and was an artist member of the Carmel Art Association. She spent the last twenty-five years of her life in Kennebunkport, Maine where she had a gallery." And in 1977 she posed while painting on Ocean Drive for pages 25, 27, and 28 of The Remarkable Riderless Runaway Tricycle (Houghton Mifflin, 1978).
Watercolor by Helen Schepens-Kraus, 8" x 6" (w x h)
