Ortac, home to a gannet colony off AlderneyI collected all my old diaries when I was visiting Richard the other week. It was odd, and quite cringey, reading through them after all this time. But there are some fairly nice pictures in there too, little records of things that happen rather than attempts at art. I'm looking and thinking of something good to write about my seafaring days. All in good time. Meanwhile...
Watching fish rising in Portland harbour one summer's evening, with a Mulberry harbour and Chesil Beach in the background
Bunkering (taking on fuel oil) in Weymouth harbour
A lifeboat (well, duh!)
I love Portland and environs and I am enjoying http://www.shipais.com/index.php
ReplyDeleteYou pictures are grand... I particularly like the Lifeboat.
I do so enjoy your drawings, Dru....
ReplyDeleteYou have a unique style that has so much character. I could look at them all day.
There's a little hint of Giles in there too, with the detail..
chrissie
xxxxx
I like your pictures too, even though I don't like boats. We went down to draw our little port one morning for our lesson and my teacher made me put a boat in my drawing. My drawing is now an 'important historical document' because they did up the port a few years back and now it is all tidy and sanitised for tourists.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading and seeing more from your diaries
I like your pictures too, even though I don't like boats. We went down to draw our little port one morning for our lesson and my teacher made me put a boat in my drawing. My drawing is now an 'important historical document' because they did up the port a few years back and now it is all tidy and sanitised for tourists.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading and seeing more from your diaries
Interesting how people love boats but hardly ever float them about.
ReplyDeleteOur local harbour has gone the way of Anji's. all neat lines of plastic yachts lined up to pontoons where not that long ago were dredgers , wooden fishing boats and occasionally a ship laden with wood would arrive from the Baltic.
A fortune has been spent tweeifying the place with not a moments thought to practicality or aesthetics. What was charming and historic is now a bland marina or marine equivalent to a car park.
Darn this was going to be in my next blog!
Love your pictures Dru.
Caroline xxx
I used to enjoy exploring Portland in my time off, Paul; and I was reeally lucky to be there for a while between the time that the Navy pulled out and the dockyard came to life again; wildlife colonised it. There was a fox that used to keep the security men company, and sat in and shared their sandwiches. They called him Nelson, because he only had one eye...
ReplyDeleteOne of our deckhands at St Malo used to draw boats all the time, Anji; but she did old-fashioned sailing ships from her imagination. I suggested she draw the ships that were actually there through the porthole, as they would be of interest as a record of how things were then. Actually, I wish I'd done moree too. You get much more from a picture than a photo, don't you?
It's horrid when that happens, isn't it, Caroline? -I really liked Weymouth because it was a busy working harbour, coexisting with the tourists. We've a local development at Portishead Dock, which is pretty much as you describe your local one; sterility everywhere.
Ironic isn't it that a drawing can be so much more informative than a photograph!
ReplyDeleteEx photographer.
Caroline xx
I like your pictures too Dru. My favourite is the one of the fish jumping with the Mulberry Harbour and Chesil Beach in the background. It's very atmospheric and the little incidental pictures often have more art about them than the 'art' pictures.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I like boats, although I've never worked on one in my twenties I went sailing with a youth group across the North Sea. We were a right raggle taggle bunch, it was a great trip.
I suppose it's got something to do with the act of selecting what you're going to put into the picture, Caroline; I know someone who draws pictures of surgical procedures, which sounds interesting but I'd be far too squeamish to do myself..
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jay. It's my favourite too; it was a lovely evening. The North Sea trip sounds like quite an adventure. I remember seeing a yacht out in the middle of the North Sea once, on a very stormy day, and thinking they were being very brave.