Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Mar 8, 2010 8:52 AMThe attraction of old boats......from Holly-Marie Haining Studios by Holly-Marie Haining
"Holly- why do you paint sooooo many boats?" Asked the 10 yr. old daughter of a friend who visited my studio last summer. It's a question I have asked myself over and over again without any obvious answer. Perhaps I was a sea captains wife in another lifetime" I teased...or even the captain himself whose proud ship was wrecked off our rocky coastline-- thousands of them were you know.." -I teased. With that response, her blue/green eyes sparkled like the sea itself and I knew I had struck a chord of intrigue. It's true I have painted many historic ships over the years- from the Daniel Tenney, a whaling ship from Nantucket for it's family heritage, to a commission of the Victory Chimes, still sailed right here in Rockland. But in between, I paint many more just because I love wooden ships and feel an attachment to them that goes far beyond the canvas.



Yesterday, as I was coming home from my usual walk with "The Pugs" I noticed the 200 yr. old Oak tree that hovers over our old cape built around the same time. Towering far above the roof line, the tree seems to frame and embrace the house. Even during the extreme winds we sometimes experience here on the river, I lay in our bed tucked under an eave and hear the wind rush through its branches. The sound makes me feel contented and protected. As I admired the branches yesterday, it occurred to me that tree had been spared the harvest for ship building that so dominated this town during the 1800's. I suppose it was not mature enough to become the timbers and frames of the 600 sailing ships that were built just below my studio and up river a bit toward town.



There was something magical about a wooden ship. Much like a romance, she blossomed out of love, great hopes and endless dreams. She had a soul that came from live trees that came from her timbers, a heart from the man who hewed and framed her, and the beauty and simplicity from the nature that surrounded her. As I studied the great oak, I realized that this is my connection to sailing ships....even when I'm not painting a ship portrait, I usually work them into the painting somehow, as shown here in the very first rough sketch for the next painting in the series of the "Black Dress'............

Labels: