A good friend owns this fine wooden boat. Built in Port Townsend, it has been a fixture here in town for many years. I’ve always admired all the seemingly tangled mass of bowsprit weaving – something that our boat, Sea Witch, has none of. The hooded mergansers come into the marina in winter, fishing at the stormwater outfalls for small fish attracted there by nutrients.
I worked up this Whitehall skiff from materials I had from the September 2000 Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend. Why I haven’t painted it before is a mystery, because she’s quite a boat. These are the old docks in Port Townsend’s Point Hudson marina, now trashed and gone thanks to a Port Commission that had little sense of history and the beauty of ‘old’.
I have no idea who owns this boat, or even if she’s still floating. If anyone knows about her, please let me know.
Acrylic on board. 14″ x 20″, framed to 25″ x 31″ under glass. Prints are now available of this image at Christie’s prints. The original painting is also currently available. If you’re interested in it, drop us an email with “Christie” in the subject line.
“Junaluska” – launch and shoreboat for the 1929 fan-tailed classic “Olympus.” When launched, Olympus was originally named Junaluska. This boat now charters out of Seattle for trips in Puget Sounds and places north.
Notice the varnish reflection on the combing and below it on the deck. I love these double reflections, and I think the painting was created solely because of this area.
Prints of the painting are now available. Email us for more information.
Port Townsend is full of these types of small wooden boats – probably more so than any West Coast town I know of. I especially liked the wine-glass stern of this one, so I painted it twice – in the same painting. It was tied on a concrete dock, but I turned it into a classic old wooden dock to match the classic old boat. Acrylic on paper.
We now have giclee prints of this painting. Check them out here.
As of May, 2008, this painting is still available. Email us if you’d like more information.
That’s right.
If Tyler Street continued downhill into the water, that is.
That’s our own Sea Witch, the 1939 Monk-designed sloop you see so much of in many of my paintings.
Oh, and the best coffee in town is just a block up from the beach here, at, of course, Tyler Street Coffee.
Prints are available of this painting. As of May 2008, this painting is still available for purchase. Email us if you’d like more information. (sorry, it’s sold)
This beach is loosing sand in winter storms. Thought I’d better paint it before it’s completely gone. Point Wilson Light is the dividing line between Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan deFuca – a big deal to boaters. The Indians disliked rounding this point so much they instead opted to drag their huge canoes overland through what is now Port Townsend. But I love it here on this point, with wild waves and kelp beds, sandy beaches (rare for this area) and lots of wildlife. Prints are available, and as of April 2008, so is the original painting. If you’re interested, email us.
