The island after

More and more I'm convinced that we are not at all rational, that instead man is the rationalizing animal. Myself included, of course.

This picture as an example: I started by viewing Martine's photo of the Seine www.flickr.com/photos/martinepittet/6336696775/in/contacts/.

Her photo reminded me of a sketch I did in Japan, a scene on the Seto Inland Sea of a ship across the harbor. I became so focused on sketching it that I never even noticed another ship come in to the harbor and tie up behind it until after I finished the sketch. It was quite a big ship, quite hard to miss, but quite invisible to me while I was doing the sketch!

Which got me thinking about Umberto Eco's novel, "The Island of The Day Before". Picture yourself shipwrecked, marooned on a grounded sailing ship along the international dateline. Within sight is an island, across the line, in yesterday but you can't swim.

Then I started this little painting.

So! I can look back noting a sequence of events and rationalize the genesis of this little watercolor, step by step (although such steps are not necessarily logical)…. but, if I'm honest with my self I have to admit the pretty clouds in Martine's photo caught my eye and I just wanted to paint a striking sky!! :-)

Yep a rationalizing animal.

Watercolor on Canson's 140 pound cold pressed paper,9 by 12 inches.