celebrity silhouette : the “crossing”

This was my first sight of land as we approached Lisbon after eight days at sea. On paper, it may have been called a cruise, but I now understand why everyone calls a TranAtlantic passage a Crossing. With no sight of land or any other ships for nearly the entire passage, people shift into an ultra-relaxed state that’s pretty terrific. Especially for painting. My classes were filled to overflowing, with a loyal and enthusiastic group of passengers.

In anticipation of our ports, we painted the European Kestrel, the Belgian national bird; Van Gogh’s sunflowers, the cliffs of Etretat in France, and Dutch and Portuguese tiles. As I’ve done for all the other ships I’ve worked on, for our last class, I created a PhotoPlay page of the ship. A few photos from my seven watercolor workshops follow in the gallery below.