The Magic of the Ordinary

 I’ve become enamored with the use of India ink and rubbing alcohol to produce a background for watercolor or acrylic paintings.  By allowing the ink to move across the blank canvas the background produced most often informs the subject matter.  In this painting, A Helm to Grasp, A Port to Seek, I used a cool ink pallet that, when dry and set with Gesso, called to mind the magic of early morning skies over the village ports I visited and photographed in Maine last summer.  The 12×24 canvas then suggested a vertical subject such as the ordinary wooden sailboats, waiting the wind down in the harbor, for what magic the day might bring.  A Helm to Grasp, A Port to Seek will be on exhibit at the Island Art Gallery Show and Sale, Pawleys Island, SC,  beginning May 4, 2018 at 5:00 pm and through the following two weeks.