My father built a small two-bedroom cottage for our family when I was a teenager, and he was always thinking up improvements or additions to make it better. The cottage was located on the Marblehead Peninsula which juts out into Lake Erie north of Sandusky, Ohio. This is roughly equidistant between Cleveland and Toledo.

East Harbor is home to many marinas for fishermen who catch fresh water perch, bass, and further out in the lake, pickerel. The harbor is calm compared to Lake Erie. My cousins had the use of a boat with an outboard motor and I wanted a boat, too.

Dad found me a 12-foot boat and taught me how to row. Eventually he got me a small outboard motor for it. Taking care of the boat and rowing it to the state park on the other side of the harbor kept me well occupied.

Between my junior and senior year of high school my art teacher gave us a summer assignment to make on-site sketches of objects and landscapes we would use in the fall semester. I did my sketching from my boat, drawing other boats, docks, and shore lines.

This watercolor painting was made from one of the sketches. I added in my dad’s boat parked under the tarp, and my boat is next to it in the bottom right corner. I was pleased with the finished painting which now hangs in my bedroom.

I know now that I shouldn’t have the wires heading out of the picture to the right, because it leads the viewer’s eye out of the picture. The pole had wires coming to it, but the gravel road came to an end behind the boat house, so the wires didn’t go the other way.

I still find it hard to add in elements that aren’t there when I make an on site drawing. Fantasy and imagination are not my strong suit, I guess.