Fishing Boat at Inverness, After the Fire (2017)
Acrylic on Canvas Board, 12″ x 16″
Original and prints available for purchase by clicking here
Northern California brings to mind this boat, grounded in the Tomales Bay. The stories of its arrival here vary. Was it abandoned by its captain and left to rot? Was it set as a sly tourist attraction? Or did end up here all out of its own doing, spinning with abandon along the current until fate finally stepped in?
I was charmed with finding it entirely on accident, which can be said of many things that end up meaning the most to us. Michael and I were on Sir Francis Drake Road, where pastures and forest take turns weaving by for hours. At a point, the road emerges into a sleepy little town called Inverness, where, behind the general store, and across the street from a post office and a sea-to-table restaurant, this fishing boat thrives in daily worship.
When I arrived back, years after the first encounter, with paints and easel, the vessel had been scorched by a fire. The general consensus of the news reporting the story was that it was arson. Someone thought it might be fun to light a weathered, but still proud boat, on fire. This person was never identified, though one thing is clear: they were never an artist.
There are some subjects I paint I feel an obligation to get right. Here is one: a silent beauty, gently resting in the bay, aged and abused, but still gripped in the Earth, and still enticing enough to get people to wonder what it might be all about.
Fishing Boat at Inverness, After the Fire (2017)
Acrylic on Canvas Board, 12″ x 16″
Original and prints available for purchase by clicking here
How to get to the Pt. Reyes Fishing Boat
As you drive through Inverness, CA, on Sir Francis Drake Blvd, you’ll find the boat behind the Inverness Store. Directly across the street is the Saltwater Oyster Depot (address is 12781 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Inverness, CA 94937) and a U.S. Post Office.
Pull into the general store’s parking lot and head to the water and picnic benches. The S.S. Pt. Reyes awaits you.
