Last saturday i was feeling restless, it was sunny, clear skies and i felt the urge to get out in Vancouver to paint! I decided to visit Granville Island for an afternoon of plein air painting amongst the tourists. After some lunch i settled on the view looking north at the ferry dock facing the Burrard bridge, a very busy scene indeed. However, this blog post has nothing to do with that painting..it didnt turn out so well.... its to do with the painting attached, a view of my friends cabin in Osprey Lake, BC. I decided to take with me a stack of finished original watercolours to position around me whilst painting on the hope that it would draw in curious potential customers. After setting up, getting all my paraphenalia around me i stood up some paintings only for this one to promptly decide to fall through the cracks in the pier decking! With the utmost horror i heard a plop of the painting hitting the water below! I hurriedly stashed my valuables and ran down the gangplank to see what awaited me....my lovely watercolour painting happily floating in the water some 15 feet away from the pontoon. After a few moments of cursing and self bashing i proceeded to run around like the proverbial headless chicken trying to find a boating hook of considerable length to rescue my painting.
One would only assume that being surrounded by water and boats of all manner the boating hook so desperately needed would just be lying in plain view, oh no of course not, that would have been far to easy... after some more cursing and hair pulling i spotted the pleasure boat rental office, of course they will have what i need...no, it wasnt to be, they offered me a broom and a yellow oar and a roll of masking tape that had exactly 4 inches of tape left on the roll! I revisted my setup..thankfully untouched and nothing pilfered...retrieved my own roll of copious amounts of tape and returned to hastily fasten together these unlikey pairings, needless to say the resulting 'thing; was utterly useless and 5 feet short of my languishing painting. More hilarity ensued as i ran around debating whether to strip to my undies to go for a dip or give up and return to my basecamp. Then the lightbulb moment hit me, i was seconds away from the wonderful BC False Creek Ferries, luckily with this day being so busy, a pop up help desk was on offer..i babbled to the girl about being an artist and losing a painting etc etc, she duly thought i was a nut job but offered the loan of their 12 foot boating hook... HALLELUJAH! I could have kissed her ..but i didnt...needless to say the boating hook was exactly what i needed and after a few attempts i landed the hooked end on my painting...which then obviously completely submerged it... i pulled it in...under the surface i hasten to add and let me remind you of my dilemma ...this is a WATERCOLOUR painting we are talking about here...i rescued the now flaccid object and to my utter astonishment and complete joy it was completely unscathed! I hurriedly returned all implements of rescue then laid the soggy article in the hot afternoon sun and i shit you not, you would never know the difference! So the lucky person that hopefully one day buys this painting will have a great campfire story to tell about it. Long live Arches watercolour paper and Daniel Smith fine artist watercolour paints a true testament to quality materials.
One would only assume that being surrounded by water and boats of all manner the boating hook so desperately needed would just be lying in plain view, oh no of course not, that would have been far to easy... after some more cursing and hair pulling i spotted the pleasure boat rental office, of course they will have what i need...no, it wasnt to be, they offered me a broom and a yellow oar and a roll of masking tape that had exactly 4 inches of tape left on the roll! I revisted my setup..thankfully untouched and nothing pilfered...retrieved my own roll of copious amounts of tape and returned to hastily fasten together these unlikey pairings, needless to say the resulting 'thing; was utterly useless and 5 feet short of my languishing painting. More hilarity ensued as i ran around debating whether to strip to my undies to go for a dip or give up and return to my basecamp. Then the lightbulb moment hit me, i was seconds away from the wonderful BC False Creek Ferries, luckily with this day being so busy, a pop up help desk was on offer..i babbled to the girl about being an artist and losing a painting etc etc, she duly thought i was a nut job but offered the loan of their 12 foot boating hook... HALLELUJAH! I could have kissed her ..but i didnt...needless to say the boating hook was exactly what i needed and after a few attempts i landed the hooked end on my painting...which then obviously completely submerged it... i pulled it in...under the surface i hasten to add and let me remind you of my dilemma ...this is a WATERCOLOUR painting we are talking about here...i rescued the now flaccid object and to my utter astonishment and complete joy it was completely unscathed! I hurriedly returned all implements of rescue then laid the soggy article in the hot afternoon sun and i shit you not, you would never know the difference! So the lucky person that hopefully one day buys this painting will have a great campfire story to tell about it. Long live Arches watercolour paper and Daniel Smith fine artist watercolour paints a true testament to quality materials.
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