Palette of St. Croix

I recently had the great pleasure of visiting a friend on the US Virgin Island of St. Croix;  A little slice of paradise....

Our Girlsjustwannapaint challenge this month was "palette", and so I painted the beautiful tropical colors of the view from where I was staying, on an actual wooden palette.  I distilled my favorite aspects of the scene as it changed frequently during the day;  The strong patterns of light and shade as the clouds passed, the brilliant turquoise where the water meets the sand, houses nestled into the landscape, and shapes of the tropical foliage and flowers....

                   

         

Cinderella

      

            Events of late have called up fond  revisitations of my early experiences, and of my art reflecting the same....  My Dad, John O. Chesley Jr., had a love of boats and sea, and of steam,  here are a couple of my way back paintings of an old rescue surf boat that my Dad converted into a steam launch like the "African Queen";   Her name was "Cinderella",  first running on hard coal and then adapted with sail and a Diesel engine.