When you’ve been out at sea for five days, with the endless horizon stretching in all directions, it is thrilling to spot land once again. As we headed up the coast, approaching Northern Ireland, the Observation Deck became crowded with other passengers who seemed to feel the same way. Excitement, beauty – and the play of light upon rocks and hills and GREEN vegetation!

I brought out my trusty travel box to try to capture some of this excitement – and this light. The challenge of doing a watercolor under these conditions, not only of rapidly changing light, but also of a steadily changing composition of forms (due to a moving boat), meant making quick decisions about what I wanted to say and then sticking with it. Land, sea and sky: three elements in their awesome simplicity. Because of all that, I feel the second attempt is more successful than the first. Even a learning based on the first. I’m posting both because I’m not ashamed or embarrassed of the first one, it has some nice energy, motion and light, but overall, I feel the second one is a bit cleaner. Each one took maybe an hour – at most.

Anyway, here they are Arriving Londonderry I & II. If you are interested in either of these pieces please shoot me an email.