Gems of the Village

Yesterday I did an initial block in for a new piece. This will be in my upcoming Summer Collection once it's completed.

Fisherman's Village is a local hub here in Punta Gorda. It has always housed nice restaurants, shops, vacation room rentals, and even a marina. The recent storms, somewhere between Ian and Milton, has really done a number on the local docks.

Usually there would be all kinds of sailboats, yachts, and fishing vessels around the area, but recently this has not been the case. Assumably from hard choices needing to be made around insurance policies, which many businesses are considering is recent years, Fisherman's Village has taken to docking boat rentals and local cruise lines. A brilliant entrepreneurial move, to the chagrin of some local boaters. I will admit that it was nice to see such congregation of tourists in a somewhat quarantined area of Punta Gorda. It looks to be gaining some revenue while leaving the rest of PG alone. Nice!

Meanwhile, there are a few docks there that have not been repaired yet, and that's where the Gems of Fisherman's Village are. My pelicans.

Pelicans have always fascinated me. Their giant mouths and big wings. How they just hang out on top of the water without fear of being eaten by sharks. (It's a thing)

These two pelicans looked so relaxed on their dock. I caught this scene via photo reference. My goal is to really make them pop and try to capture the surprising serenity that they emit. I mean, who has ever seen a stressed-out pelican? Unless they're caught in a net or hooked, they're pretty chill.

Coming up is one of my favorite steps of the painting process: the second layer. Like Sargent, I like to go in with saturated midtones/base tones in the beginning. The second layer and beyond are for refining lowlights, then highlights.

I can't wait to see where this goes!