Saturday, October 19, 2013

Aboard the Appledore

Sailing! Sailing! Over the bounding main....

Many years ago, I sailed with friends in Gardiner's Bay aboard the schooner Appledore.



Today I found again this watercolor drawing which I made during our sail. I'm wondering if I could make it into a painting? The problem is that I'm not very nautical, and I haven't explained the various items in the watercolor very well. 

An ancestor of mine was the master of this schooner, the Robert McClintock.


It plied the Chesapeake Bay, and up and down the East Coast, carrying lumber and all sorts of things.

A website, fiddlersgreenmodelships.com, is offering a 1:64 double-planked model of the 86-foot long McClintock.


But, even had I the necessary scratch to buy the one-off model, it wouldn't be the Appledore.


All said, I figure I can't really do this. The learning curve is just too steep.

So I'm going back to this 16x20 that's been on and off the easel recently. 

I may call it "After the McClintock had Sailed".





I wish you fair winds and following seas.

9 comments:

  1. http://www.appledore2.com/camden.html

    Don't give up Donald...here is the schooner Appledore website, full of photos to help fill in the blanks left in your 1983 Watercolor. It would be lovely in oil...

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    1. Thanks, Elaine...that's both good and bad news! I was actually relieved that that ship had sailed.

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    2. Bon Voyage Appledore... she is a beauty though :o)

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  2. In 1987/8 I made a model (it was a kit - but you had to each piece out of the sheets of wood or balsa) of the L'Etoile/Belle Poule - it was about 80 cm long - and, of course, took a lot of work - made a change from painting ;) I finally threw it when we moved here 4 years ago - and I'm already starting to regret that rash action! It's nice to be near/on the water, isn't it?

    http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Poule_%281932%29

    Ah, they still do the model!

    http://www.maquettesdebateaux.com/vmchk/les-bateaux-ecoles/etoile-belle-poule/flypage-ask.tpl.html

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    1. Jon...nice model (the first link goes to an 18th c. frigate). I'm always looking for things I got rid of years ago.
      You might enjoy some of the sea paintings of Frederick Waugh. His early career found him in France, painting the landscape.

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  3. The "USS World Series" pulls into Boston on Wednesday. We'll be watching John Lester paint the corners. Good sailing Sox!

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    1. Fair winds indeed!!
      My sainted third cousin-once-removed, Mark Harryman...after taking me to the home opener... is taking me to Game One ! I'm a lucky fella.

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  4. Other non-obsessed ship lovers probably wouldn't mind some vagueness and impressionism in your nautical paintings! My husband is enjoying the steep learning curve of model building... the journey, thousand steps, just one at a time... etc. etc.

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    1. Agreed, Dana,but there's very little light between the non-obsessed and the 'couldn't care'!
      Aargh! matey, there's the rub!

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