This week, I was going to send out a painting I just finished of Sol Duc Falls, but I received so much good mail last time about the saga of Rumpy, our old boat, I decided to tell you about the boat we now have (another art project). It’s a pretty interesting tale, and the past few days I’m giving her fresh paint in the boat yard, only a few hundred yards from Rumpy.

We bought Sea Witch 10 years ago, soon after giving up Rumpy, because, well, you just can’t be Boatless Near Seattle. Built in 1939 in Tacoma, Sea Witch was designed by Ed Monk Sr, probably the most famous boat designer in this part of the country, and in fact Rumpy was designed by him too. For the boat’s first 25 years, things went along in fairly normal style until the Bailey family bought her in the 1960’s. Five kids, dog, cat and both parents Jo and John would all stuff themselves aboard this little 30′ boat and sail off for the summer. According to the kids (who are all adults now), things never went all that swimmingly, but something must have clicked because most of them still love to sail and the boat lives on in iconic family history.

Then things got serious! In the 1980’s Jo went started writing sailing stories and cruising books, and because of this, just about everyone around the Northwest knows about Sea Witch. I had even purchased a signed book with Sea Witch on the cover back then and still have that copy. Jo continues to write today and occasionally includes Sea Witch in her tales.

So a decade ago it was our turn with the old girl. She needed a complete restoration which took me several years – and was quite some job. All this is well documented with scads of photos on our website if you’re interested (click here), but what I want to really show is that this boat and its dingy (shore boat) has since become the subject of an entire portfolio of my paintings. Not only that, but I’ve also written Sea Witch stories for the Seattle Times and supplied covers and stories for Seattle’s 48 North magazine. This beautiful and graceful shape, a classic example of form and function combined, doesn’t have a bad view. This is not so with modern boats sporting reverse transoms and plastic hulls. Sea Witch not only sails well but is a joy to portray. Like the graceful curve of a beautiful woman’s back, this boat’s shape gives me great pleasure to look at. For that matter, she’s a joy to slap paint on too.

Here’s a favorite image of mine showing where she lives. If you look closely, you’ll see two river otters on the dock. While they’re cute, these little bandits come on board and leave amazing messes you can’t even imagine. I was sure if I painted this as homage, they’d leave me alone. Hah!

So here’s the pitch. If I sell a couple of prints or a painting this week, I can pay for the haulout and maybe a can of paint – and one of you could own a piece of Sea Witch. (maybe that’s too shameless a pitch.)
We have eight-color Giclee prints either unframed or framed, between $39.95 and $239.95 available of this painting and the original painting is still available for $700 unframed. Email us.

Or, you can go to our Giclee Print Index here

Here’s our main website address where lots is going on.

Or, send us an email to opt in or out of our email family – or just ‘talk’ with us. I promise I won’t be so wordy next time.

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