You are currently viewing Boats and Yachts

Boats and Yachts

From Rushcutter’s Bay to Williamstown

My love of boats in pastel

If nothing else, the number of nautical images on the Pastel Art Prints web site will give you a clue as to how much I enjoy painting boats and yachts.

From the age of eight, summer holidays were spent at the family beach house and although there was a local yacht club, ours was not a boating family.

When I was in my late twenties, I stayed in a magnificent house overlooking Rushcutter’s Bay in Sydney. I would snatch precious moments alone sitting on the balcony, gazing captivated at the sea and sailing boats below. I always had a pen and and notebook in hand and would fill its pages with images that later became poems.

I lived for some years in the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds and one of my greatest pleasures was driving to the nearby boat haven of Williamstown and walking along the pier. Being surrounded by such a wonderful assortment of boats was like stepping into another world.

Some were sleek and modern, some big and stark, while others had as much character clinging to their weathered timbers as the barnacles below. Their sensual curves, strong lines and jaunty shapes piqued my imagination. The mingle of colours and reflections and the sounds of the wind rustling through the rigging sometimes soothed me, sometimes stunned me.

Back then I hadn’t begun to paint with pastels or indeed in any other medium. Nor had the thought to do so even crossed my mind.

How life can change, but my love of boats however has never diminished.

Leave a Reply