Watercolour Painting of Wreck Wooden Boat and Outrigger Canoe

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Watercolor as painting media

This watercolour painting was still in progress when I took its image just a few minutes ago. I consider drawing and painting watercolor as my hobby. I use Derwent watercolour pencils and pentel as my materials. I prefer using this media because it is clean. My subjects range from seascape, birds, snake and beautiful girls. I was thinking of moving to oil painting but later because of the limited space in my house, I return to use this easy to use art media. The wreck wooden boat and the canoe were real subjects which you can see at this time if you go to Anggrem wooden boat harbor in the coastal area of Manokwari.

Artists in Manokwari

This city is the capital of West Papua province of Indonesia. I often visit the place while guiding tourists around Anggrem and Borarsi areas. Perhaps the outrigger boat does not exist anymore on its current location but I believe the owner still use it to paddle around the Dorey bay of Manokwari city. The boat was taken out of the water to let it dry again for 1 or 2 weeks before it can be used again at sea. Ideally, the boat must not receive direct sunlight. Around the Anggrem area, tourists can see some Papuan artists such as Bert Suruan, Nico Asaribab and Yosep Awom and Ester Kereway. From these artists, only Bert Suruan who devotes himself in creating watercolor artworks. He combined his watercolour paintings with markers locally named spidol. Most of his paintings are about the daily activities of Papuan people particularly those who live along the coastal region. The blue sea water is frequently depicted in the paintings with boat or wooden houses constructed above the water.  

Mastering Watercolor

As a watercolorist, I found this media very difficult to control for the first time. Most beginning watercolourists might get frustrated when trying to use this media for the first time. I have been drawing and painting since I was a child but every time I begin a new painting, I always have to carefully move my brush on the paper that has already been sketched with the subjects that I want to paint. I usually paint on white paper. Free acid paper manufactured by Canson. I also give great attention into the details of my paintings. Although I don't make a lot of paintings in one year, I am quite happy that people like most of my artworks.

The above watercolour painting of the Wreck Boat has not been finished. I plan to finish it in January 2011. When it is done, I will post its image on this webpage again so that you can compare the complete painting and the incomplete one. To see some of my artworks, you can look at the pictures below and click any of them to see each painting in large size.

Finally, I could finish this painting in May 2011. I have been very busy with my job guiding tourists and writing articles on the internet. Look at the following picture of the finished painting. The significant addition is the blue Arfak mountains as the main background of the painting. To draw the exact contour of the mountains, I had to go down to Anggrem area in the Dorey bay again early in the morning when there were no clouds covering the mountains to see how the mountains look like. I made some pictures using my digital still photo camera as reference for the contour. Now, I am happy because I could complete the painting. I have put this artwork into a frame that is protected by DOP glass cover. This is a special glass whose surface is rough to prevent light from being reflected. If you are interested in buying it, please, do not hesitate to contact me via my email: charlesroring@gmail.com. I will be happy to answer your email, questions and request for my original paintings.

Also read: Watercolor painting of Balinese Temple

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