Pulled up to this house in a Newfoundland village, these small boats are ready to go back in the sea.

All across Newfoundland, I found delightfully coloured boats and houses. This view, which is not uncommon in the small villages, provides instant design possibilities. This sketch uses acrylic with grease pencil on pastel paper.

Newfoundland

I was drawn to this view because of the colourful buildings in this very small village. Abattoir red on the middle building suggested a less than shy inhabitant. There must be a need for people who live in foggy coastal areas to enliven their landscape with brightly-hued structures. Think of the Alaskan villages and the coastal parts of Scandinavia and Russia. Mind you, I can recall many colourful buildings in the Caribbean as well, so there goes that theory.

Perhaps because I have always lived inland, I am bewitched by harbours and their many moods. Maybe my vacation visits to seaside towns are conditioned by my holiday state of mind when I am there. St. John’s was a magical and singular experience for us, and in this rendition, I hope to convey the complexity of this small piece of harbour just below Signal Hill. The range of buildings, boats and activities is so vast in any port. They do vary of course. This place is much different from the pleasure craft choked harbour in Key West that is known as the Bight.

While on a commission project for Wade Engineering, we stopped briefly at their outpost in Tilt Cove, Newfoundland. Looking over this long-abandoned small harbour was the house which years ago belonged to a sea captain who liked to maintain a vigilant eye on the activities of this small out-port.

This tiny fishing haven in Newfoundland is typical of the “almost villages” that stand along the coast. The wharves or stages girdle the few buildings that stand on stilts, ready to welcome home the fishermen in an area of the island (east coast) that is subjected to nor-easters that blow in to create dangerous situations.

I find an attraction in the jumble of stuff that crowds a harbour. The many buildings, posts, docks and boats present a confusing variety of shapes and colours that challenge me to make a cohesive pattern.