Paint and Personality

Pato's Wish
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Here are two new paintings completed earlier this month. Random subjects, I thought; the only thing they had in common was that I'd been meaning to get round to them for ages. The first is Pato's Wish, which is intended to be a companion to The Marbre Therese at Portmagee. These two fishing trawlers have been based at Portmagee since I started going there more than ten years ago (and longer, I daresay); but earlier this year Pato's Wish was decommissioned and is no more. I think she went for scrap. The Marbre Therese (or Marber Therese, as she is actually registered - she now bears her correct name following a repainting) is too small for decommissioning and I have high hopes that somebody will take her on. I have fond memories of watching both boats have their catch unloaded, usually after dark in the freezing cold; the crews were always friendly and didn't mind having their photos taken, although we were careful not to get in the way!

I was keen to paint Pato's Wish while she was still relatively fresh in my mind; I've taken many photos of her over the years so it wasn't hard to find suitable source material. As usual I put in the background, and a little foreground, then started to work on the boat herself. At which point I'm almost embarrassed to admit I became terribly emotional, being only too aware that I was depicting the passing of an era. So this painting, while I'm glad I've done it, made me feel terribly sad; hopefully that will pass.
















Lear at the Globe
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

The second painting is another London-based one; I walk past the Globe Theatre every day on the way to work and have seen quite a few plays there. The atmosphere is marvellous, always buzzy, and I wanted to try and portray that; the views are spectacular but always a bit crazy, given that the space is circular so you're often looking at the stage from the side. I wanted to show that too, so I threw careful perspective out of the window (the Globe doesn't have any windows, anyway) and just enjoyed myself making up little stories about the people as I painted them in (these are some Scandinavians over on holiday, here are a couple of students etc) even though they were only impressions. But to my mind the building itself is the star of the show in this picture - as it is in real life . . .

It was only when both paintings were finished and I took another look at them that I realised I hadn't just painted a boat and a theatre. They are both distinct personalities; one sadly no longer with us, the other hopefully around for many years to come!