Art Day Onboard

My friend Anne is a terrific painter. She likes to have “art days” with other painters. The host team makes a substantial lunch, which the painters eat together, then take a walk, meditate, have some tea, and get down to painting. She makes an exception for me since I'm not a painter - but I'm willing to learn.

Today was my first time hosting. As we paint with watercolor, it seemed fitting to paint onboard. I was worried about what Anne would think of Mazurka – you know, it’s not the cleanest, although it is pretty damn clean, considering it’s a boat. It's small, and smells faintly of fuel and oil, there are sewage problems, and after the long winter wrapped in plastic, it can smell a little...closed in. I was worrying that she would be appalled at the way we live. But then I thought, this is the Bohemian artist’s lifestyle, baby! What’s more “Bohemian” than going to visit your writer friend down at the river where she lives on a boat? Especially if she’s been up since before 6 AM, making you bouillabaisse to go with fresh-out-of-the-oven French bread?

And there’s nothing worse than preparing for a guest and finding a dead rat floating beside your front door. Literally. The marina was particularly filthy on this day, with all kinds of shit floating by, and when I came back from my morning walk I noticed a strange thing floating among the Styrofoam cups and plastic debris. A white belly with what looked to be short black wings; at first I thought maybe somebody killed a goose; then it turned, revealing two little back legs with tiny rat feet. The belly was as long as my forearm.


The current swept it toward the stern, where it bumped the boat and then started along the side toward the bow. I hoped that by the time Anne arrived, it would be gone. But it wasn’t. It floated there all day long.

Despite this ominous omen, the day went off swimmingly. Lunch was good, Cheney stayed put (to the point that Anne suggested I choose a nonaggressive name - Michel - and speak sweetly to the goose), and our day-long process resulted in some interesting work.


"Cold April Walk," Anne Nordhaus-Bike, Mixed Media: Pen and Ink, Watercolor; 2007.




"Through the Window," Felicia Swanson, Watercolor; 2007