Fort Lauderdale
In 1998 I was invited to take part in an exhibition at the Walter C. Young Centre in Fort Lauderdale. We decided to travel over to America for the exhibition and do some paintings around Florida. After the exhibition preview we drove down to Key West.
In many ways I was following in the footsteps of one of my painting heroes, American artist Winslow Homer. Homer really began to develop his watercolour skills in Cullercoats in the North East of England. However, he painted a number of fresh, spontaneous watercolours of Key west towards the end of his career in 1903 and 1904, and there was nobody better at painting palm trees. I was looking forward to painting the same subjects he had delighted me with.
Winslow Homer
The Key West that Homer painted and where Ernest Hemingway lived was quite different from the one that Susan and I spent several days but still very inspirational. I sat on South Beach and painted a 12″ x 9″ watercolour in bright sunshine. However, as indicated in this sketchbook watercolour, dark threatening clouds on the horizon were gaining momentum with the warm strong winds. By the time I’d finished, the heavens opened and we ran for shelter. The sketch I painted became a much larger watercolour studio painting. But the story of the Key West painting doesn’t end here.
Stolen Painting
Four years later I had the original painting of South Beach, Key West stolen just a week before we left Eldon Gardens! It was framed up and on the wall in my gallery in Eldon Garden Shopping Mall.
On the day of the theft, my business partner David Welsh was manning the gallery whilst I had been out. On my return I noticed a large space where the painting had been. “Who’s bought the painting of Key west?” I asked. “Nobody” was David’s reply, not realising that it was no longer on the wall. Someone had distracted David by standing directly in front of him whist an accomplice lifted the painted off the wall and walked away. Even though the whole theft was on CCTV, the police were never able to identify the thieves and I never saw the painting again.
Florida Paintings
Despite the theft, the other watercolours I painted from our trip to Florida were well received by the paying public. One of my favourites was this one of two red tugs painted on location. There’s a real simplicity of this composition which comes alive through the use of Cadmium Red to indicate the two tugs with a few dabs wet on wet for their reflections.
