Square Up
Wind and Whitecaps. (This painting is brighter shades of whites than it appears in the photo!)
It seems I choose subjects to paint that present a particular challenge to me. At 36” tall, this is a larger canvas, one of the largest and most challenging I have attempted. Since I must paint while seated in my wheelchair with my knees under the easel, and my right arm is shaky and will collapse if I raise it over shoulder height . . . I was faced with the serious dilemma of not being able to reach the top section of this painting.
What to do? Picture me with my hand holding my chin and tapping my cheek. So . . . my solution was to turn the canvas upside down and sideways to paint the clouds at the top. I would periodically set it back upright and then back off to study it to see if it looked correct. I had never painted ocean waves before either. What ever possessed me to do this?
Twenty-five years ago, wait . . . how was it that long ago? Anyway, in 1994-1995, before becoming paralyzed, I had an opportunity of a lifetime to work during the summers for a Texas A & M University program with GERG, the Geochemical Environmental Research Group. They had subcontracted with the EPA to test and monitor the health of bodies of water influenced by the saltwater of the Gulf Coast, or ‘near-coastal’ waters. I actually passed certification to become a captain of one of their 23’ long research boats, which looked like a smaller version of a Coast Guard vessel. Along with learning parameters for using the equipment to gather, strain, and test the sediment, record light penetration and oxygen saturation, inventory marine species caught in the dragnet, and preserve the target fish to send to the lab . . . I also had pretty intense training on how to use the GPS, the depth finder, navigate that big-to-me boat in channels, around sand bars, in the very shallow Matagorda Bay, Lake Pontchartrain, the very deep and temperamental Mississippi River and many places in between. This was quite the challenge!
Sometimes the wind would pick up and the seas would get choppy and rough. We faced waves that looked very similar to these in this painting. They taught us to square the boat up and to drive forward with the bow straight into the oncoming wave. You don’t try to dodge them or meet them at an angle because the wave impact on the side of the boat can roll the it over and cause it to capsize. A good life lesson as well, right? Face your challenges head on!
In the fall of 2018 when I was working on finishing this piece, my now son-in-law, Stephen O’Shea, was on a very unique quest on a sailboat with his buddy, Taylor Grieger. They were on a mission to successfully sail down the entire west coast of South America and navigate around the harrowing seas of Cape Horn at the bottom to bring awareness to supporting the prevention of veteran suicide. Many of the seas they faced looked very similar to this if not much larger. Stephen videoed their often alarming and harrowing experiences for a documentary that is now complete and set to come out in late 2021 or 2022! Stay tuned for that!
This original painting and prints are available to purchase on my website. All proceeds are used to cover ongoing medical expenses concerning my paralysis. A new one I just found out this week: I have surgery scheduled for June 4 to loosen the tendons in my left hand that is contracted and clenched shut.