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Tugboat Painting to Home Port

Two Fridays ago, my painting of the M. Moran docked at its home port — the walls of my great-uncle’s house — in its new-old frame (new for the painting, old in that the frame was built several years ago). It really brightens the room and ties in to the other colors and woodwork.

MMoran-frame

What’s more, my great-uncle was so pleased that he asked me to do another painting of one of his boats! This time around, it’ll be the Alice L. Moran, another “most powerful” tug.

While visiting, I found the “Marine News” pamphlet containing the picture I worked from. I opened the first page, and, surprise, surprise, — there was a small black and white image of the original painting, complete with the stern of the ship. Although it would have been nice to know what the back of the boat looked like, it was still fun to figure out how everything that was missing might look and to reinterpret the image to fit my great-uncle’s home & frame.

The original is 23.5″ x 16″ by marine artist Charles G. Evers, whereas mine is 22″ x 30″. The background is Diamond Head, HI.

To learn a little more about the specs of this tug and the history of the M. Moran line, click here to read an excerpt from the “Marine News” article. And here to see a photo of its initial tow to Korea.

On the way there (to my great-uncle’s house, not Korea), I passed through Savannah, Georgia, and went down to the river, where, lo and behold, were two Moran tugs! One was docked, the other pushing a steamer. A lovely coincidence.

Now that school is out and I’m back in town, I’ll update this here captain’s log more frequently with bits about the myriad projects I have queued this summer.

So long!

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Tug o’ War

Indeed, the painting of this tugboat, active around wartime, is finished.

Then arises the question of whether an artist’s work is ever finished. But essentially it is finished. I may tweak a little after looking at it tomorrow. (Admittedly, I made a few changes since taking the photo you see below!) Comparing this image to the prior photographs, again we may observe the exquisite variation of dormitory lighting. Click to see a larger image.

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A No-Nonsense April 1st

We’ve marched out of March and into April — it may be May before we know it.

Despite gaining a second job at school for the remainder of the term, I’ve continued (albeit sometimes disjointedly) to work on art projects. At this point, it’s almost exclusively the M. Moran tugboat painting, which is coming along.

Click the thumbnail to see a bigger version. Click here to see the post featuring photos of an earlier stage in the process (“Tugging Along”).

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Also, I learned that it was in fact Korea, not Japan, to which the tugboat traveled from the Continental US, stopping only in Hawaii.

On a musical note, today in my carillon lesson, my teacher showed me the summer program for Centralia Carillon — and what should appear on the cover but my drawing? Or what looks like my drawing. I say that because the program designer colorized it to make it “pop.” The trees in the drawing were tinted bright green, which is perhaps a few touches too bright, but there’s a goldish sort of yellow that makes the radiating light around the top of the tower stand out nicely. (I don’t have a picture, but if you visit Centralia, IL, on certain Friday evenings this summer, maybe you’ll get to take your own copy home. No fooling!)

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Terry Treble in Print!

Good news! Last night, I spoke with Bill Hermanson of MusicLearningCommunity.com, who picked up the long-awaited prints of Terry Treble Music Adventures on Monday. Once the MLC site is updated to include purchasing information for Books 1 & 2, I’ll add a link to Draws the Eventide. Stay tuned.

Also, in case you haven’t explored this site within the past few weeks, you might sally over to the Art Portal. I added two new sections:

 

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Tugging Along

As the year marches into March, life on the Mississippi keeps chugging and tugging along (given all the barges, tugs, and trains). Below are two shots of the M. Moran painting at its current state (in the process, not in the Union). The photographs are a bit dark, but they give a good idea of the painting process, showing underpainting and overlaying.

Evidently that is not the Mississippi River Valley in the background.

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