Month: September 2015

Boat House and Grennan Bearit

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Another beautiful morning on Nantucket. Up early just after sunrise for this sketch as the fog was lifting. The Boat House and Grennan Bearit are 2 rental cottages on North Wharf on the Nantucket Boat Basin. Nantucket is so a quintessential New England with all of the cottages and buildings in grey weathered shingle buildings with white trim right on the water. I sketched this Plein Air and added the color later due to the 100% humidity and I knew the watercolor would never dry. Holbein watercolors with black fine pens in a Alpha Series Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

2015-09-10 North Wharf Nantucket

White Hibiscus

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Another variety of Hardy Hibiscus or Swamp Rose. This color combination seems to be blooming now, a little later in the season than the red variety that I painted a little while back. This flower is all white with a purple center and yellow Stamen. Holbein and Daniel Smith watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Alpha Sketchbook.

2015-09-07 White Hibiscus

Plymouth Rock Memorial

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The real Plymouth Rock was a boulder about fifteen feet long and three feet wide which lay with its point to the east, thus forming a convenient pier for boats to land during certain hours of tide. In 1920, the rock was found and the waterfront rebuilt to a design by noted landscape architect Arthur Ahcrcliff, with a waterfront promenade behind a low seawall, in such a way that when the rock was returned to its original site, it would be at water level. The care of the rock was turned over to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and a new very sober Roman Doric Portico designed by McKim, Mead and White for viewing the tide-washed rock protected by gratings. Faber-Castell Pitt black pens in a 9″ x 12″ Stillman and Birn Alpha Sketchbook.

2015-09-06 Plymouth Rock Memorial

The Mayflower

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The Mayflower was the ship that transported English Separatists, known today as the Pilgrims from Plymouth in England to the New World.  There were 102 passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about thirty, but the exact number is unknown. This voyage has become an iconic story in some of the earliest annals of American History, with its story of death and of survival in the harsh New England winter environment. The culmination of the voyage in the signing of the Mayflower Compact was an event which established a rudimentary form of democracy, with each member contributing to the welfare of the community. The Mayflower stopped in what is now Provincetown and First Encounter Beach in Eastham prior to landing in what is now Plymouth, MA. This is actually a fully working replica of the original vessel in Plymouth Harbor. Ink with Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Sketchbook.

2015-09-05 Mayflower

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus

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While it is not yet fall here in the Northeast, there are starting to be subtle signs that autumn is around the corner. This is a typical New England stone wall that the farmers constructed from all of the stones that they would plow up while working the fields. These walls would separate the fields and properties. This image shows the green ivies in the sunshine on the left transitioning to the yellow and oranges of fall foliage on the right in the shadows. Holbein and Daniel Smith watercolors in a 5″ x 8″ Moleskine watercolor book.

2015-09-03 Stonewall

Rosa Rugosa

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Summer on Cape Cod is wonderful with the sight and smell of the Sea Roses (Rosa Rugosa). Rosa Rugosa is a suckering shrub which develops new plants from the roots and forms dense thickets with stems densely covered in numerous short, straight prickles. The flowers are pleasantly scented, dark pink to white with somewhat wrinkled petals; flowering occurs throughout the summer on the cape. Holbein and Daniel Smith watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Sketchbook.

2015-09-02 Rosa Rugosa

Sailing the Canal

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A beautiful evening for a sail along the Cape Cod Canal. The Cape Cod Canal is an artificial waterway in the state of Massachusetts connecting Cape Cod Bay to the north with Buzzards Bay to the south. The canal is part of the Atlantic Intercostal Waterway, the approximately 7 mile long canal traverses the narrow neck of land joining Cape Cod to the state’s mainland. Most of its length follows tidal rivers widened to 480 feet and deepened to 32 feet at mean low water, shaving 135 miles off the journey around the Cape for its approximately 14,000 annual users. Pilot Namiki Falcon fountain pen with Noodlers ink and Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Sketchbook.

2015-09-01 Sailing the Canal