Sailing in Pink

Sailing in Pink
Watercolor batik on rice paper, 6x7.5
purchase here

I was set up on the bank of Lake Perry, painting a landscape in oils when these girls walked out to their boat.  As they worked, I heard the story of their sailboat by another artist who kept his boat here.  These girls bought this sailboat in disrepair for a song.  Putting many long hours into it, they brought it back to life as a team.  They were laughing and having a good time as they raised the sails and headed away from shore and I knew then that I would one day paint them.  A pink sailboat brought back to glory by the work of their hands, and now they can enjoy the fruits of their labor - does it get any better than that?  I first sketched this out in pen and ink - rather loosely, then painted in the colors of boat and land.  Covering these areas with hot wax, I then painted the water highlights with the hot wax as a resist.  Next, adding the water tones - and then it was back to waxing the whole painting, wadding it up into a ball, pressing it flat, and floating the burnt sienna into the cracks. Putting it between layers of brown paper, a hot iron removes most of the wax, leaving the luminous painting on the rice paper.  This painting makes 643 in as many days.